


And Eren LOVED Women

by coffeedependent



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alive Marco Bott, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Badass Armin Arlert, Baseball Player Eren Yeager, Bottom Armin Arlert, Crack Treated Seriously, Erwin Smith Has a Big Dick, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Crack, Friends to Lovers, Hange Zoë & Levi Are Best Friends, Homophobic Language, Internalized Homophobia, Kinky Armin Arlert, M/M, Mikasa Ackerman & Eren Yeager Are Siblings, Minor Levi/Erwin Smith, Modern Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, No Manga Spoilers, Nonbinary Hange Zoë, Sassy Armin Arlert, Slow Burn, The Author Regrets Nothing, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Top Eren Yeager, levi is a senior
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 21:47:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 61,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29035692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeedependent/pseuds/coffeedependent
Summary: Eren Jaeger loved a lot of things. Those lots of things included his family, friends, teammates, but most of all: WOMEN. And Eren made sure everyone, including himself, knew this on a daily basis. He even made this a point to his best friend, Armin Arlert, who he ended up loving a little bit more when Armin agreed to be partners with him for their final chemistry project.
Relationships: Armin Arlert/Eren Yeager
Comments: 347
Kudos: 551





	1. Eren Doesn't Like To Do Things That Make Him Sad

Eren was quite literally on his hands and knees for Armin.

“Ar, I’m begging you! I can’t afford to go to summer school when the team might go to nationals! I’m literally like 6% off from having Mr. Shadis round my grade up to a C!”

Armin glared down at the brunette from where he still sat at his desk chair. Other students from their shared chemistry class gave them odd stares as they filed out of the room, escaping the daily hell they were forced to attend. Not that Eren cared, though, because he was too busy begging the top student in their class (who was also his lifelong best friend and evil genius) to partner up with him for their upcoming project that would replace their final.

“Eren, I already told you that I was going to text Marco about it. You literally never do your work unless I tell you and even if you _do_ do it, it usually isn’t even able to be classified as half-assed. The work is quarter-assed if I can catch you on a good day,” the blond huffed, swiftly packing away his notebook. He considered himself lucky that Mr. Shadis temporarily left the room to make copies so he wouldn’t have the teacher overlooking the shameful sight. At this moment, the ache in Eren’s knees from being on the tiled floor made him realize what this might’ve looked like from the outside perspective.

 _No homo, I have socks on,_ the eldest Jaeger thought to himself before hoisting himself up and brushing off his clothes. 

“Armin, I promise I will do all the work this time! I will do all the work and you can just edit it, I just absolutely need this grade!” He cried, brushing off the knees of his jeans. Another sigh was heard, and a groan, and then the smack of a hand lightly hitting a forehead. Eren glanced up from his brushing and Armin had moved from facepalming to rubbing his temples. “You practically live at my house anyway! You can supervise me!” Eren egged on. He desperately needed Armin to agree to being his partner- no, he was pretty convinced he would die and suffer a horrible death if Armin partnered up with Marco instead of him.

Not that Eren was jealous of Marco or anything just because Armin had taken a liking to him, of course not! Eren loved women. Who didn’t, he argued with himself at night about these matters. Tossing and turning around in his bed, thinking about how totally great and artful masterpieces women were. Even if you liked guys (which Eren did not, he liked girls), Eren deducted that you have to love women because women are women and women are great.

But just to clear things up, Eren did NOT want to steal Armin away from Marco because he knew Armin liked Marco and he was jealous. Eren needed Armin to be his partner because this final was worth 10% of their grade and the previous night, Eren googled that he would need to get at least a 121.5% in order to bump his 64.3% up to a 70% percent, a passing grade.

“Eren, you know if you turned in all your missing assignments then you could probably have a solid 68 right now, right?” Armin began to walk out of the classroom and Eren quickly followed as they began their regular walk out of the school campus and towards Eren’s house.

“Armin, you know that homework makes me sad and-”

“-you don’t like doing things that make you sad,” Armin finished the sentence for him, rolling his eyes.

“Exactly! See, I’m glad we’re on the same page,” Eren flashed his signature smile before changing the subject. He didn’t need Armin to confirm that they were going to be partners because Eren already knew. You see, Eren Jaeger was very well-known at school. Not only because he was a catcher on the varsity baseball team at his school or because he was a simple-minded idiot who still managed to hold onto all-honors courses with an AP class mixed in, but also because he was always someone who managed to get his way one way or another and it usually started with his signature smile. A set of perfect pearly-whites and if he were an anime character (even though Eren’s convinced his anime character would be a huge badass who never smiled, gave great one-liners, and saved the world from all evil while still being the only hero), his teeth would do that cool little thing where they would sparkle. 

They both arrived at the picture-perfect Jaeger household, Eren heading straight to his room while Armin stopped swiftly in the kitchen to greet Mrs. Jaeger (who always seemed to be baking to Armin’s sweet-toothed luck). The two boys sat against Eren’s headboard while Eren booted up his TV, immediately going to Netflix and shrugging under the covers while Armin pulled out his laptop. Grabbing the remote, the TV was quickly shut off as soon as the terrifying ‘dun-dun’ of the Netflix opening echoed in the bedroom. Eren whined in protest, rolling over onto Armin with grabby hands who held the remote high out of his reach. 

“Ar! This is my only day without practice for the rest of the week, that’s not fair!” Eren whined, kicking off the covers. Armin turned his head, a disapproving look mellowing out slightly as he looked into Eren’s eyes.

“Eren, it’s been two seconds. Are you legitimately crying over this? Are you serious?”

The brunette sniffled. “You’re making me sad.”

Armin huffed in frustration, throwing the remote across the room and it lightly banged against some odd wall, “I literally don’t care. Like at all. We have a project to work on, partner,” the typing sounds of Armin’s laptop were the only sound to fill the room.

 _Project?_ Eren thought.

“That’s not due for another 2 weeks! Why the hell would we start it now? You know what, for being so smart, you’re straight up being dumb right now. Why can’t we relax?”

“It’s called time management. I know you’ve never heard of it, but it’ll make our project better in the end. It gives us time to look back, review, and revise,” he explained, pulling up Google Slides. The project, to Armin, wasn’t even hard. All they had to do was pick a chemical reaction, document it at home, and present it. This final was a piece of cake compared to everything else Mr. Shadis made them endure during their 2nd semester (which included a pop quiz every week during the month his wife left him and a class spent rambling about how he wasn’t ‘special’).

“Go get your computer and we’re going to start this, or else I’m calling Marco,” that was the statement that sent Eren scrambling for his laptop.

An hour later, Eren deducted that he needed to “ _take the most colossal piss on Earth, I’m pretty sure the bathroom will flood after this one, Ar,_ ”, and Armin took it upon himself to replace his laptop in his lap with Eren’s.

 _Okay, now to put reminders into his Google calendar so he can’t forget when to work on the project when I’m not here,_ Armin chuckled to himself at his genius since he knew Eren didn’t know anything about using apps related to school, most importantly how to work his calendar. Chester Cheetah once said it wasn’t easy being cheesy and Armin was absolutely compelled to agree because it really was _not_ when you were as intelligent as him. Armin mentally thanked Eren’s bladder for giving him this opportunity before spotting that Eren had two separate google tabs open that were separated, leaving one hidden behind the tab that they currently worked on for the project. The blonde shook his head at no one in particular and ran a hand through his short bangs, convinced that he probably had grey hairs tucked in there somewhere due to his best friend.

 _I thought I told him no cheating. Why does he have to cheat? All my notes are right here for us, there’s no reason for it_ , he mulled, clicking on the tab to see what source Eren was using and if he had been plagiarizing.

**_Muscular teen pounds blonde femboy_ **

Armin let out a squeak, closing the browser and slamming the screen shut. He put the laptop back in Eren’s spot a folded his hands in his lap. 

Unfolded the hands in his lap. 

Brushed off his knees.

Refolded his hands.

Turned off his laptop.

Sighed.

Cracked his knuckles.

Was his heart still beating? Oh yeah, because he could hear his pulse in his ears and feel the said-pumped blood rushing to his pale cheeks.

He wiped down his face with shaky hands, getting up to relocate the remote he had thrown earlier which consequently sat on the opposing side of the room near the door as he previously intended. He leaned down to pick it up, figuring they could both watch something as a small break before getting back to it and give time for Armin to reset. He went to straighten up when the door swung open, making him fall back on his ass as he looked up at Eren’s stunned figure. Eren reached out a hand, laughing at Armin’s mishap but also apologizing half-heartedly. Armin’s eyes followed up the veins on Eren’s forearm.

‘ ** _Muscled teen_ **’

“Armin, dude, get up,” The blonde became suddenly aware of his position on the floor. On his ass, sitting on the floor with his legs spread slightly. Eren's large build towering over him, casting a light shadow from whatever light was being produced from the hallway and into Eren's bedroom.

**_‘Blonde twink’_ **

_‘I AM NOT A TWINK!’_ Armin’s eyebrows furrowed angrily at the label. The awkward silence between the two boys stretched for a few seconds longer than both would've liked to: one boy coming across a realization he should've never seen and the other confused if his best friend was put off by the fact that he had to piss so bad. So eventually, Eren let down his hand and shrugged, brushing past Armin and hopping on the bed, cocooning himself in a mound of blankets.

“Get up and come relax. Are you monologuing or something? Only TV show characters monologue. You’re creeping me out, Ar,”


	2. Don't Out Anyone, It's Just Plain Rude

Okay, so what, Eren watched gay porn for educational purposes only.

Okay, so what, Eren also got a boner whenever he watched it but never has he _once_ jacked off to gay porn because right before he would finish he would switch the tab to straight porn. Therefore he only ever came to straight porn and that counted because Eren was NOT gay. He was the star catcher on the baseball team, he couldn’t be gay! That’s not how stereotypes worked.

Therefore, Eren was disappointed to find that his latest ‘studying material’ tab had been closed out. He would’ve been easily able to relocate it if he hadn’t purposely saved it on a private tab but either way the young boy didn’t know if he was disappointed or relieved. On one hand, the video was really great. It went fully in-depth in what Eren considered “things The Gays do.” 

Eren only studied gay sex obviously because his best friend was gay and if Armin ever needed advice then Eren would be open for him to come to.

On the other hand, Eren was genuinely concerned about the effect the video had on him. Every time he would have to switch the tab in order to take care of the problem that grew in his pajama pants every time. And not just a tiny problem, oh no. A problem that ached hard until Eren got his hands on it but would eventually soften as the girl’s fake moans filled his ears on a low volume. He supposed this video had such an effect on him because he was into blondes and the guy in the video (said blonde twink) kinda looked like a girl. He had weird bangs that almost covered his eyebrows and nearly chin-length blonde hair styled in a bob. The more Eren pondered it, the pornstar kinda looked like someone he knew…

Historia Reiss!

Eren sighed as he leaned back against his headboard, closing his eyes and thinking about the girl who he’d known ever since elementary school. She had well-kept blonde hair, big blue eyes you could just swim in, and a small dainty body with a sunshine personality. Sucks that she was taken, though. Historia was in the same grade as Eren and Armin, a sophomore, but she was dating a junior named Ymir Bott. All Eren knew was that Ymir was apart of the school’s photography club and that her younger brother, Marco, was kinda-best friends with his arch-nemesis/third-closest-friend Jean. Also that Marco was a flaming homosexual who couldn’t stop making bedroom eyes at Armin throughout their chemistry period. Marco was the second top student in their graduating class but he was always trying to help Armin. With what, Eren didn’t know. Armin was on a set path to be valedictorian of their graduating year so it didn’t make sense that Marco wanted to help Armin so badly and why Armin took the help when he could just talk to Eren if he ever needed help and not stupid Marco—

and this is precisely why Eren watched gay porn. Even though Eren didn’t like the idea of good-boy-nice-freckles-Marco getting all cozy with ~~his~~ Armin, he still needed to be there to help Armin in case Marco decided to make moves.

Eren took note of how caught up in his thoughts he was and shrugged out of his bed, going to the kitchen for some late-night snacking on some of the cookies his mom made earlier. Tomorrow would be a long day but Eren couldn’t think about that as he munched down on chocolate chip cookies.

—

Armin was braver than any U.S. marine.

This was not an opinion either but proven a fact because he was able to look Eren in the eyes when the two first saw each other during their break.

The small, petite boy walked up to Eren and his older sister, Mikasa, and if there’s anything to know about her: Mikasa Jaeger was NOT a force to be reckoned with.

Armin knew that when Eren had fallen off of his bike and scraped his knee back when they were both ten. Armin was honest-to-God convinced that he and Eren were the only two who were supposed to go to the store to grab Mrs. Jaeger more flour for her muffins but whoosh, the second a cry came from Eren’s mouth, Mikasa was breathing down the back of Armin’s neck quite literally and asking what happened. Whenever Armin cared to pray (usually on nights before tests or when Eren really tested his patience), he made sure to throw in a little _‘by the way, I gave a dollar to someone on the side of the road today and that is good karma. I will exchange it for your protection from Mikasa Jaeger’_.

“Hey Ar,” Mikasa greeted lightly, nibbling on some chips. He greeted her back with a wave a kind smile as he climbed into their usual cafeteria table. Unfortunately placed at the center of the huge room but over the past two years, their small little friend-family had come to see it as a safe haven. Armin would like to say that the others trickled into their designated seats as Eren talked vividly about the practice he was to have for baseball after school, but just as Eren started to really get into it, Connie and Sasha came bounding to the table with their arms interlocked.

“Guys! Guess who finally got her license!” Connie announced proudly, wrapping his other arm around Sasha in order to snuggle into her side like a proud mom. Sasha rewrapped her arm around Connie’s shoulders and shoved the other into her back pocket to fish out a driver’s license. 

“You have ramen stains,” Mikasa added dully and Sasha gasped, whipping back said-license and examining it to find that Mikasa was right. The white t-shirt Sasha had worn that day had ramen stains around the collar. Not too visible, but a dull yellow.

“Oh, you told them the news?” Reiner pulled Sasha’s ponytail lightly from behind. She chuckled and hit him lightly in the chest before giving a lively wave to Reiner’s counterpart Bertholdt. At 16 years old, Bertholdt was easily the most intimidating of the group. Not even Eren, who had the temper of a toddler, could compare to the vicious 6’6” Bert stood at his young age. Ironically, Bert couldn’t hurt a fly, and Reiner, unnaturally buff for their age, was the same way as well. 

“Either way, Sash, I’m proud of you even though you’re going to crash in approximately two days,” Connie used Sasha’s chest as a resting point for his chin as he looked up at her, still clinging to her waist.

“Wow Connie, good use of approximately. Such big words for a small boy,” Jean was the last of the group to arrive, snickering as Connie pushed that he was, in fact, a man, not a boy despite his height.

The next 10 minutes went by swiftly until the bell signaled and the group groaned, giving sad goodbyes and ‘ _see you at lunch!_ ’ as they all trudged and went their separate ways to their third period of the day.

During class, Armin didn’t think about Eren. Armin wasn’t an idiot so he knew he should just forget about it. Yes it would invade his mind at random times of the day but all in all, Armin wasn’t one for dramatics just like how Eren didn’t like being sad, and therefore Armin concluded that when Eren wanted to come out then he could come out. It wasn’t Armin’s place to force him out of the closet and it never would be, even though Armin knew the burden and weight being in the closet carried.

Many kids came out easily and Armin’s story couldn’t be any more different. The response he got to coming out was so supportive. His grandpa, the most important person in his life, was so happy for him and joked that he “just knew”. His mom and dad hugged him and told him they were so proud for pursuing what made him happy openly because _‘that’s what God would want for all his children’_. That’s what Armin hoped, too.

The Jaegers, being family-friends, accepted him with open arms. Except Eren grabbed Armin roughly by the shoulders and looked him deeply in the eyes before saying, “You can have boy talk with me!” and Mikasa gave Armin a sweet pat on the head before they group-hugged.

For the rest of their friends, Armin came out over their Snapchat groupchat (named The Scouts after Connie and Sasha went through a _‘I want to be a detective because I watched Deathnote once’_ phase) and was met with these exact responses:

**_Jean Kirstein: epic_ **

**_Connie Springer: proud for u_ **

**_Sasha Braus: ^_ **

**_Reiner Braun: ^^ same_ **

**_Bertholdt Hoover: ^^^ :c same but bi_ **

**_Sasha Braus: mikasa do you have dok for algebra 2 honors?_ **

**_Mikasa Jaeger: yeah why_ **

**_Sasha Braus: can i copy_ **

**_Mikasa Jaeger: no_ **

**_Sasha Braus: wtf mika u brother-fucking bitch_ **

So you could say it went well for Armin. And yes, he changed all his friends’ stupid usernames to their actual names. Do you understand how hard texting is? Think of the author, too, because no one likes a texting fic where you can’t tell who is who.

_What writer? What texting fic?_ Armin always thought of the silliest things. Well, he also liked to act like he was the main character in an anime sometimes but he feels like he would be the smart sidekick. At least to Armin’s mom, he was main-character-worthy.

Back to the main topic- Armin’s coming out went swimmingly but Armin knew the process of coming to terms was worse. The blonde boy chose to block out memories of twisting and turning in bed before deciding to get up after hours of restlessness. He would kneel at the foot of his bed and quite literally try to Pray the Gay Away. Looking back on it, it’s funny, but in the moment praying was like a lifeline to Armin. He wasn’t as religious as he was back then, but he could still feel the ache in his heart when he would whisper through tears, “ _Please make me normal. I don’t know what else to do. I became the top student in my class and I promised to you it would stay that way until I’ve completely finished college. I’m a nice person who takes care of others. I put everyone before me. I’ve done everything right, God, so why have you betrayed me like this? Why have you made this mistake?_ ”

No one really cared enough to bully Armin, but there were always snide comments made to him like, _“Hey Armin! That sweater is super cute. It’s kinda girly though? No judgment or anything but like it’s a little girly huh? You like girly things right?”_ No, Armin liked the sweater because it was warm. It still didn’t help his confidence in humanity when he _did_ decide to come out. So he didn’t want to push Eren because although Armin had a good, safe environment to come out to, there’s still a process that included accepting yourself first and Armin didn’t want to rush Eren through that.

So kiddos, if there’s anything you learn from this story, then learn this: don’t out anyone. It’s just plain rude.

Other than that, Armin didn’t give Eren another thought until lunch when their group eventually sat together again to complain about their classes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys! thanks for the love on the previous chapter :) <3 mwah mwah


	3. Being An Evil Genius Comes Along With Being a Huge Dick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW// HOMOPHOBIC SLURS!!!
> 
> hi friends!!! this chapter would’ve been out sooner but my computer coincidentally broke the same day i posted chapter 2 oopsies :v but anyways let me know what you guys think! i’m not really happy with this chapter but it unfortunately had to be done im sorry :( also thank you guys!! i love reading all your comments it always makes my day :c okay, on to the chapter!

Ever hear the sound of a bat hitting a ball?

Neither did Eren, because he was at his last batting practice before his team’s final qualification game and he was whiffing every single pitch.

 _“C’mon Jaeger, you got this kid, dig in right here!”_ his fellow teammates called out from the field. Eren got his stance ready, loading up before taking a hack at the pitch coming right down the middle. He swung out of his shoes and was only met with the disappointing sound of the ball hitting the catcher’s glove.

“Wow Jaeger, I can hear the air whiff all the way out here!” Jean sneered from the mound, getting ready to throw his next pitch. The catcher standing in Eren’s place chuckled at the comment and Eren glared at him as he reset himself. He raised his hands, looking Jean dead in the eye as he anticipated the next pitch. His gloved hands felt shaky and unsteady so Eren took a few deep breaths as Jean did his wind up but to no avail. “Jaeger, come talk with me!” Coach Weilsman called out, switching out Eren for another batter.

Eren’s shoulders hung lowly as he trudged into the empty dugout with Coach Weilsman. 

“Listen kid, even for someone who’s only a sophomore, you’re a real leader on this team. I can tell you’ve been off this whole practice, so I’m gonna give you some time to cool down, okay?” the baseball coach huffed, looking down at the solemn kid on the bench who kept his gaze trained on the ground. In the past two years Eren had been on varsity, Coach Weilsman had never seen the kid look so distraught. Jaeger had come in like a big, angry tornado and although the Coach had to keep the kid after practice during his freshman year to work on managing his anger, Eren was always the first person to cheer someone on or pick them up if they were struggling. Obviously no one is perfect and Eren had his fair share of bad days, but Weilsman saw the bags under Eren’s eyes and the lost skip in his step during warmups. In fact, the entire team seemed to be silent while they ran fielding drills because they didn’t hear Eren’s usual “ _Here we go Thomas! Yeah, atta kid good footwork!”_ or a sly “ _Run like the wind, Bullseye!_ ” when Jean ran the bases during conditioning.

Eren nodded his head, slipping a pack of gum out of his back pocket and chewing on the stick to relieve some tension he was feeling (a nice trick he held onto from his anger counseling with Coach Weilsman). The coach gave his catcher a final pat on the shoulder before exiting the dugout, leaving the kid to his own devices. “Kirstein, Schultz, switch out! Kirstein, in the dugout, fix your catcher!” From where he was sitting, Eren heard the clacking of metal cleats coming towards him against the cement floor of the dugout. A weight sat down next to him leaving no room for personal boundaries and Eren wobbled when Jean shoved his shoulder lightly.

“You look like shit,” Jean deadpanned and his catcher just chuckled softly, still keeping his eyes trained on the ground,“but seriously, E, what’s up man?”

It was the last week of legitimate school before finals and had only been a mere week since he and Armin partnered up for their chemistry project. It wasn’t easy to just ignore the alarms that Armin had sneakily set into Eren’s calendar but Eren still didn’t do the work. He always found some excuse to put it off until it ended up being 9pm and he hadn’t gotten anything done. So, Eren told Jean it was no wonder that yesterday, Armin uncharacteristically came to school in a hoodie and sweats with his hair tied back into a bun and how he acted so coldly to him for a reason. It was no wonder that Armin disregarded every attempt that Eren made to talk to him on the way home, and it certainly wasn’t surprising that Armin had planned to chew Eren out accordingly because Carla made it no secret that her and Mikasa were going out for a designated girls’ day and everyone in the Jaeger household knew that Mr. Grisha Jaeger usually didn’t come home until 6pm.

_“Eren! You might not care about your grades but I care about mine and I will not allow myself to be dragged down by you any longer! You are my best friend, so it’s personally my job to call you out on your pompous, self-centered bullshit!_

_You act like you’re grateful for me dropping Marco as a partner for you, but then I don’t get jackshit in return? ‘Oh Armin, I’ll do all of it and you just revise it’ ‘Oh Armin, please I need you!’ I’m fucking done, Eren. We have until Friday to finish this project, but now, it’s Tuesday afternoon a week and a half later and if I were to look at our progress, it would probably be as good as one of us dying tomorrow. And incase you couldn’t get that through your thick-fucking-skull-”_ Armin paused, eyes crazed with rage as he roughly gestured his finger into his forehead with every syllable, “ _that’s not fucking good! If you just did as the reminders told you, you would’ve been done with this project by yesterday! But whoopty-fucking-doo, you go off and do your own thing at your own will because you don’t care how it’ll affect others around you._

_I’m not getting an unnecessary B in this class because of your stupidity, and if you don’t get the entire project done by tomorrow night for me to review, then I will personally email Shadis to fail you because you don’t know how to fucking take care of your shit! Go take fucking summer school, but I’m not getting caught up in the crossfire of you being lazy when everything else in your life is handed to you on a goddamn silver platter!”_

Armin usually only went as far as ‘ass’ and ‘hell’ so the second that Armin started dropping multiple f-bombs per sentence is when Eren officially knew he had fucked it up.

He could vividly remember the baby hairs from Armin’s manbun sticking straight up as he pulled at them in frustration. He took in Armin’s appearance, realizing that Armin wasn’t underdressed today because he was frustrated with Eren- Armin was just _so tired._ He could see Armin’s eyes slowly becoming bloodshot as they stared each other down, along with the undeadly paleness that haunted his usually-pink cheeks. His cheekbones sunk in and Eren finally connected the dots that Armin was probably stressed out all week from their upcoming finals. 

The end of the year meant a huge rush for everything going on and for Eren that only meant baseball. For Armin, ‘everything’ meant being the vice-president of the Key Club, volunteering at the local animal shelter (where his boss Mina promised he’d score a job the second he got his worker’s permit from school), maintaining his grandfather’s house while simultaneously taking care of himself and his grandpa, tutoring algebra at their old middle school, all while studying for his classes (of which included all honors courses excluding the 2 AP classes he took). Along with all of this, Armin had personally made it his goal to be the top student in their graduating year and Eren knew this because of a breakdown Armin had one night during their freshman year, elaborating how he probably wouldn’t be able to afford college without the financial aid of a scholarship because the business trips his parents took to advertise products internationally were beginning to pay less and less. 

So essentially, Eren was the biggest and most selfish douchebag on Earth and he knew that. He also knew that everything Armin said was true and that he was overwhelmingly upset with himself, but he did the only thing he knew to do at that moment.

An hour later, Armin ended up leaving Eren’s house with a stone cold expression while Eren furiously wiped away tears in the main living room. His throat was raw from yelling and his head hurt from bringing up every flaw in him and Armin’s friendship just for the sake of being right because Eren hated to be wrong like the selfish, immature child that he was.

“And so the reason you’re down in the dumps is because you’re mad at yourself, not Armin, but you don’t want to admit that he’s right so you’re just ignoring each other now?” Jean questioned after Eren’s lengthy rant. They had moved to the bleachers once batting practice had ended and the team began to pile into the dugout to clean up.

Jean sighed when Eren nodded to confirm his thoughts.

“Wow, Jaeger, you really fucked it up this time, huh?” Another nod.

“Grow a pair and apologize, dude,” Jean pat him on the back, standing up, “and practice is over. Clear your head a bit and I’ll ask Weilsman to let us use the field so I can get you some legitimate batting practice,” Jean’s two-toned hair disappeared into the dugout, leaving Eren on the benches. He stood up and followed suit, making his way into the dugout. This time through, he didn’t whiff any pitches that Jean threw. And then, Weilsman made them run bases as a conditioning punishment for ditching the last 30 minutes of practice.

\--

“Eren, what is it? I cancelled on Mina for this,” Armin impatiently tapped his foot against the hardwood in Eren’s bedroom. Eren sat on his bed, hoping this conversation wouldn’t escalate to yelling so his mom wouldn’t be alerted downstairs.

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t accept.”

_“What.”_

Armin pinched the bridge of his nose between his pointer finger and thumb, “I don’t accept, Eren. The project still isn’t done. I still need to revise it all by Friday; that’s only two more days. And that’s already on top of everything I have to do.”

He sighed before continuing, “Eren, I’m not mainly mad at you for not doing the project. Yes, that’s a huge factor, but you’re _always_ like this; whether it be your homework, this project, life in general, you have been consistently unreliable for the past year or so. I’m fed up with it because in case you haven’t noticed, I have other stuff to cram in this week and get done and I have a life outside of being your sidekick. Get it done tonight and I’ll review it, but I’ll still be upset with you. If I let you off the hook now, then you won’t learn. Now I’m going to go because I promised Marco a study date at his place and my grandpa wants me home by 7, so bye. Text me when you’re done,” with that, he made a 180 turn on his heel and began to walk out.

Against his better judgement, the steaming brunette called after him, “What the fuck is up with Marco all the sudden?”

Armin froze a few steps short of the doorway, slowly turning around as if he was the villain in a horror movie being revealed. He tilted his chin upwards and his eyes glinted as he glared down at Eren from across the move. 

“You go on dates with people you like, Eren,” he frowned, malice laced in his words. “Didn’t know it was your business,”

“Excuse me?”

“Excused,” and before he could reach the doorknob, in a flash Eren had hopped over and grabbed his wrist. 

“You’re hurting me,” each tug was useless and Eren’s grip tightened with each attempt.

“Don’t care. Why Marco of all people?” 

“Got a crush or something, Eren?” Armin sassed, pulling out his final trump card that would help him get out of Eren’s bedroom. He knew he was being a dick and if he kept nagging Eren, it would probably result in their first ever full fight but Armin was too mad to care because he longed to get on Eren’s nerves right now. If played correctly, this could play out two ways: Eren leaves Armin alone and Armin can go on his date (favorable outcome). On the other hand, Eren would tell Armin and possibly explain things enough so Armin could understand what he had found on Eren’s computer the week prior (unfavorable, unlikely, but possible). 

The air in the room seemed cooler on his wrist when Eren let go in surprise. The brunette stumbled back and Armin could see Eren’s face going red with either anger or embarrassment, he couldn’t tell which. Although Armin loved Eren and knew his little secret, there was a fine line between internalized homophobia and genuine homophobia and damn, did Eren walk it hard. So, being the bad friend Armin definitely wasn’t but his anger levels were kinda through the roof so it made him irrational, he came up with a plan.

“I-I…” Eren trailed off in an attempt to gather his thoughts, “I was just curious because he’s all you seem to talk about now,” he spat. “You know I’m not like you.”

Armin had cornered Eren, naturally and as anticipated. This little argument would finally get Eren off of Armin’s back for the next few days, so Armin egged him on tauntingly while gripping his backpack straps with white knuckles. Chuckling darkly, he continued to further split him and Eren apart.

“Oh really, Eren? ‘Like me’? Am I a disease or something?” Armin snarled. He was going to be late if Eren kept him longer, so he had to end this quickly.

“I’m..I’m not.. You know I like...You’re different…”

“Different?! Yeah, I can see where this is going, Eren. But maybe we aren’t so different, hm? I didn’t know me and Marco bothered you so badly,” Armin was close to winning this (in his terms of what winning was). He sauntered towards Eren intimidatingly, towering over him and loomed over Eren on his bed. He leaned down and Eren’s only option was to lean back with him, until he sat back on his elbows and looked up at Armin in terror.

His green eyes met Armin’s blue ones, which were narrowed and his pupils were small. Eren breathed heavily, and here was the evil-genius side of Armin he hated to see. Armin knew what he was doing, Eren knew what he was doing and the outcome Armin wanted to achieve, and most of all: Eren knew he could stop it, but Armin’s little mind games had his mind going numb in the end to where he just froze on the bed. Armin’s hair gracefully framed his face as it fell out of his bun and he furrowed his eyebrows, smirking with content before he started his little tirade back up again. He leaned down and Eren was still glued to the bed, eyes wide in fear.

“Does it bother you that I’m gay, Eren? Or…” Armin leaned in, swerving Eren’s face at the last moment and putting his mouth merely centimeters from Eren’s ear.

“Do you wish that I liked you, instead? Do you want to take Marco’s place, Eren?” his voice dropped down to a whisper, his syllables delicately bouncing off the shell of Eren’s ear in small breaths of air. The shiver that ran through Eren’s body woke him from his frozen state as he tucked his legs in and swung out, effectively pushing Armin off him and sending the blonde stumbling across the room. He was shaking in a combination of fear and anger when he realized Armin had gotten his way. And this was confirmed when Eren yelled, _“I AM NOT A FUCKING FAG!”_

Armin eyed Eren up and down with wide-eyes and disbelief before smirking. His plan went accordingly, even better than expected, and he knew Eren knew that when Armin saw Eren roughly rub his eyes at a poor attempt to wipe away incoming tears. Now, Armin was sure that 1) Eren would leave him alone and 2) Eren would have to actually and genuinely apologize to him because Armin sure as shit knew Eren was only apologizing at first because he felt bad, he didn’t actually care about what he had done wrong.

A knock sounded at the door before Carla poked her head in, “Everything okay, boys? I heard yelling.”

“Everything is fine, Mom. Armin was actually just leaving,” Eren seethed through gritted teeth.

“Project. Tonight.” were the last words Armin said to him before giving a small smile to Carla and walking out of the house. Eren, stubborn little shit he is, didn’t realize that besides the project they were due to present in a few days, it was the last time Eren would genuinely talk to Armin until the start of their junior year.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> big oof. armin being an irrational asshole and classic eren being the most homophobic homosexual. also idk if anyone was gonna get mad at me abt it but yes i am apart of the lgbt community :// anyways more characters are being introduced next chapt and more comedy rather than armin being an asshole whoop whoop. as you can tell i wanted a more realistic take on a teenager with canon character armin’s smarts and wit as opposed to him letting eren walk all over him?? idk lemme know what you guys think :c <3


	4. Grisha Owed Carla $20 And A New Toy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi everyone!! thank you all for the feedback on last chapter. your comments make my little heart soar <3 i don't really know how to work ao3 to be honest and i'm scared to press too many buttons in case i mess something up so if you have ever commented then this is for you *hug*
> 
> anyways, this chapter is ridiculously long wtf??? dk how that happened. the first half is kinda filler? and then the second half is like "ayo, plot time" so yeah sorry about that oopsies. i hope i'm spacing out armin and eren's relationship nicely :vvv i love slowburn but unfortunately i'm really bad at that HAHAHA anyways love you all and enjoy the chapter <33

Their project ended up getting an A. Eren did finish it that very night and Armin had to make minimal changes to it along with redesigning every slide because Eren had a tendency to not only use background colors that made the text hard to read, but also had a weird obsession with putting a transition on every single thing. In total, Armin had to delete 105 transitions from slide to slide, text, pictures, double transitions. But they presented it, got an A, the next week was finals, and their sophomore year was finally done. The semi finals were that Saturday as well which they lost due to Floch severely overthrowing the ball from the outfield when the tying run was coming home. The ball soared a good six feet over Eren’s head, hitting the backstop and sending him scrambling, allowing the winning run to score as well. Frankly, Eren hoped Floch felt like shit after that. Everyone hates Floch.

Armin aced all his exams with ease and when grades came out on Friday night, he got the best sleep he had within the whole month. Straight-A's as anticipated. Not only that, but him and Marco ended up going on  _ another  _ date (this time, instead of Marco’s house they went to a bookstore). Marco, fresh with a new license, picked Armin up and he was swooning over Marco’s knowledge about the stars. He learned that similar to him and Eren, Marco and Jean were childhood best friends and when they were younger they would go outside and watch the stars a lot. Sheepishly, Marco admit that sometimes Jean would still stargaze with him some nights if Marco was stressed about something. Instead of feeling jealous, Armin’s heart swirled and exploded in his chest.

That was so  _ cute _ . The freaking stars! Marco and his stars. Armin’s pre-sleep daydream scenarios consisted of him and Marco under the stars from that point on.

Eren, on the other hand, was a mess. He got all B’s on his exams, hooray, but his life was a mess. He lost the semi finals because of a stupid freshman and he hadn’t seen Armin the entire month of June after their fight. Unfortunately, Eren was a stubborn bastard and didn’t want to apologize and admit he was wrong. He was so so  _ so _ mad at himself but continued his act out of spite because he didn’t want to just submit to Armin like that. He wanted Armin to want him to come back.

Yeah, that plan was a good one while it lasted... _ not _ .

Carla could tell that Eren was distraught and that it was because of Armin, simply because Armin and Eren usually had sleepovers every week during summer until Armin’s parents came back in July and August. She tried to take him outside but to no avail. Mikasa hung out with Eren in his room and when their parents bought Mikasa her own car for her 18th birthday, she made him do her Peloton workouts with her at the local park so he didn’t lose his figure for baseball. Along with the muscle mass gain, he grew taller too. So if there was one good thing to take away from this summer, it’s that he finally hit puberty and he no longer had to walk to and from school.

One day, Mikasa tried to offer to maybe go to the county summer fair, Eren turned her down because it “wasn’t right. I can’t ride the ferris wheel without Armin.” To which, Mikasa hit him, saying it was the last summer fair she would have before her senior year and she got seniority. So, instead of going with Armin, all of the Jaeger family collectively went to the fair as a “Mikasa’s in her last year of high school!” celebration as opposed to a friendly tradition. But still, Eren felt off the entire time but then him and his dad had a competition at one of the shooting game booths (Grisha smoked Eren by a landslide which left both Jaeger siblings wondering where their dad learned to shoot a gun like that, and left them especially confused when their mother laughed and said, “Just like old times!”). Unfortunately, the fair only lasted for that day, so Eren had the most boring summer known to mankind.

Armin, on the contrary, having the time of his life this summer. On July 4th, him and Marco shared their first kiss (both with each other and in general) under the fireworks after Marco officially asked Armin to be his boyfriend. The whole “Eren’s computer” situation only ever crossed his mind on his occasionally sleepless nights every week when he stared at his phone, wondering if he should text his best friend. He knew that they were both in the wrong: Armin being a manipulative asshole, but Eren did the entire 9 yards. Not doing his work, refusing to apologize, calling Armin slurs (which Armin chuckled to himself that he kinda spurred Eren on but regardless, Eren had a multitude of other things to call Armin and he chose that word so that’s on Eren), and  _ then _ not apologizing for that.

As always, summer went as quickly as it came, and Eren found himself getting dressed for junior year. His hair had become quite long, just below his ears, so he waltzed into Mikasa’s room and sat down on her bed. He waited for her to come back from downstairs and he slid to the ground as she stepped behind him, putting up his hair into a loose bun.

“Casual or dressy?” Mikasa made small talk.

“I’ll do dressy if you do dressy,”

“Deal.”

So after she was done, Eren went back to his room to get “dressy”.

“Eren, that is  _ not _ dressy. You look ready to ask a freshman where her hug is at. Ugh, whatever,” Mika ran a hand through her short hair, recently cut into something resembling a pixie cut. She tugged on her worn leather jacket and adjusted her red scarf before checking the clock. “You know what, we’re going to be late, but I won’t forget this betrayal, little brother.”

Eren considered a white t-shirt without stains and black jeans dressy, okay? And plus, behind his varsity jacket, his muscles did look  _ really _ good, so he looked fine as hell (fact) and that equals dressy.

“We’re picking up Armin, by the way. Marco had to be at a 0 period, so get a move on,” was the final thing she said to him before going outside to her car. Eren froze and mentally cursed at Mikasa because she knew him and Armin hadn’t been on good terms for the past 3 months and she completely disregarded that. Forgetting the fact that Mikasa is nice to Armin because all three of them were a childhood-best-friend-trio, he instead took this as payback from her for not being “dressy” enough.

And then the other problem. Marco Marco Marco. Stupid Marco. Even though Eren didn’t see Armin over the summer, he sure as hell saw every single social media post from the two of them about each other. It was so annoying. Eren vividly remembers watching a story post of him and Marco hugging. Marco came up from behind and wrapped his arms around Armin’s stomach while Armin’s hand (the one not holding the phone) reached behind him and squished Marco’s face against his. It was during a grocery run with Mika and while he was waiting in line, the guy behind them happened to just look over Eren’s shoulder and saw the picture. He scoffed, muttering something about impurities, and after that day Eren made sure to follow an abundance of female models because he didn’t need anyone getting the idea that he was gay. Every guy loved women, and so did Eren, and it was only natural that his algorithm set it up so he was seeing unnaturally-orange ass & thong combos every other photo.

Shaking his head, Eren climbed in the car and set his backpack at his feet. The twist and turns of the car felt familiar as they made the 2 minute drive into the adjacent neighborhood to pick up Armin.

Mikasa shot Armin a text and nerves coiled up in Eren’s stomach as he awaited for Armin to come out and get in the car, “Oh, and by the way, Armin told me he has a few cousins in town so we’re taking them too.”

“What the fuck, Mikasa?! We’re taking two total strangers to school?!”

“Yes, because we’re good friends and won’t let them walk to school like mad men. Armin told me their parents are on a trip for their anniversary and will probably move here when they get back, so the cousins are staying with him. Now get over because they’re all gonna be here in- OH MY GOD!”

His head shot up at Mikasa when she gasped and cheered, rolling down Eren’s window in order to lean across him and shout, “Who’s that sexy thangggg?!”

He followed her cheery gaze to Armin and if there was a floor, his jaw would’ve dropped it. As expected, everyone went with dressy on the first day of school, so that explained why Armin wore what he did. But Eren had never seen Armin so  _ up to date _ with trends, fashion, style, the whole nine yards. Armin wore the school crewneck, a dark green with the words ‘SINA HIGH TITANS’ and ‘est. 1964’ splayed across the front classily in white. He had a white collared shirt poking out, along with black ripped jeans and matching dark greens vans.

And not only was the outfit out of character, but his  _ hair _ . So long were the days of Armin’s trademark bob that Eren could spot in a crowd. Instead, it was replaced with a bowl cut and a sleek undercut, no longer able to hide Armin’s sharp jaw and cheekbones.

Eren noticed all these details because Armin looked _ so fucking hot _ .

For a guy.

He looked nice for a guy, as nice as guys could look because they could never ever match up to a woman’s beauty in Eren’s mind.

Behind him treaded two girls, one who looked Mikasa’s age and a very short one who looked similar to the other so they were obviously sisters. The first one had her hair pulled back in a bun, letting her bangs hand forward on her face and covering one eye. A black oversized band t-shirt, black jeans, and white vans adorned her body along with a white hoodie poking out underneath. The stoic look on her face reminded him faintly of Mikasa. The shorter one also had bangs and her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She held the same deadpan as the girl who Eren assumed was her older sister, except she dressed a lot more trendy.

“What in the Pinterest threw up on you?!” Mikasa gaped as she turned around in her seat, smiling widely at Armin as he slid into the backseat with his cousins.

“You like it? My parents suggested the haircut when they came home,” Armin blushed sheepishly and Eren let out a sigh of relief as he leant back in the passenger seat. Still the same old Armin.

“Okay yes that, like woah total shock factor with the hair, but the clothes too! Literally who taught you how to dress,” Mika joked, pulling onto the main road and proceeding to school.

“That would be me!” The shorter girl piped up. “Oh yeah, my bad for not introducing you guys. Eren, Mikasa, this is Annie and Zofia. Annie and Zofia, this is Mikasa and Eren. We’ve known each other since we were all, like, 5,” Armin laughed and Annie gave a grunt in recognition.

“So what grade are you guys in?” Mikasa, coming back strong with the small talk.

“I’m a freshman,” the younger one, Zofia, said. “Ar, I think Sasha’s little sister and Bert’s little brother are freshies, too. And Reiner said something about his cousin,” Mikasa said, looking in the rearview mirror.

“Zofia, we have this huge friendgroup and we’ve all been together since middle school. They all have little siblings who became friends by force so I’m sure they wouldn’t mind you sitting with them! We can all introduce you,” At that, Zofia smiled.

“What about you, Annie?” It was the first thing Eren had said in the car ride at all.

“‘M a senior,” she muttered, still looking out the window, “thanks for the ride, by the way. It was really nice of you to drive us, Mikasa.”

“Yeah of course, no problem...Annie,” Eren spared a glance to Mikasa and his eyes widened when he saw a faint tint of pink in her cheeks.

Was Mikasa...gay?

He pondered it for a minute before shrugging his shoulders.

_ ‘At least she understands how beautiful women are. Mmmm, boobs’  _

And then Eren thought of boobs as they turned into the school parking lot. No boner, though. Maybe he was just an ass guy, because now that he thought of it, boobs were kinda weird. Just some milk sacks. Ew, boobs.

_ ‘NO! WE LOVE WOMEN AND THAT MEANS WE LOVE BOOBS! _ ’

Eren shook away the thoughts as the group clambered out of the car. Mikasa and Eren had already accessed their schedules online so they went to their first period as Armin led Annie and Zofia to the front office.

The next time they all saw each other was break.

As per usual, Mikasa and Eren were the first ones to their table. The second was Reiner and Bert, along with two boys trailing behind them. “Hey Udo!” Mikasa greeted Bert’s little brother and Eren followed suit before turning to Reiner. 

“Hey guys! This is my little cousin Falco, cutie ain’t he?” Reiner pinched the cheeks of the little kid, Falco.

“Hi Falco! I’m Eren and this is my older sister, Mikasa,” he grinned and Falco immediately decided he liked Eren the most. He looked really cool.

Second to approach was Jean, Marco, and Armin with Marco’s arm around Armin shoulders. Eren really did try to not roll his eyes but he did anyway before realizing that Zofia and Annie were here, too. They gave their introductions and Annie sat down next to Armin and Marco while Zofia reluctantly started talking to Udo and Falco.

Finally, bounding in like an unstoppable force, Sasha and Connie crashed into the table.

“Hey guys! You all remember Gabi, right?” Sasha shoved her little sister to the front, and Gabi huffed in annoyance. The group greeted Gabi and Sasha cheered, pinching her cheeks in a similar fashion to Reiner.

“Get off me, Sash! I swear sometimes I could kill you!” She seethed, pushing off her older sister and making her way to Udo, who ended up introducing her to the other two new kids.

Eren looked around the table, realizing that they’d all done a lot of growing over the summer. They all never really got to hang out because either Armin was there and Eren wasn’t going to be and vice-versa. Bert and his family took a month trip to sightsee in Europe and plans just never really worked out, so he was glad to be with his friends again.

Bert looked relatively the same, just more muscular and mature. Reiner had started to grow hints of a beard along his jawline. Marco had opted to get an undercut, same as Armin, but his long hair on the top was slicked back. Sasha’s hair got shorter and Connie’s signature silver hair got longer. Then, his eyes fell upon Jean right when Jean coincidentally looked over at Eren. Uh oh.

“Wow, Jaeger, you almost don’t look like a sack of shit for once,” Jean smirked, eyeing Eren's appearance. Jean's hair had grown out into some mullet-type thing with an undercut so you could still see the embarrassing two-tones.

“Damn, right when I was about to ask what products you used to grow out that mane of yours,” everyone simultaneously groaned. The kids looked around and Bert whispered into Udo’s ear, who whispered to Falco, who whispered to Gabi, who whispered to Annie, who whispered to Zofia, and then they all looked equally terrified.

“Are you ever gonna use more than one insult?”

“Oh, stop with the long face about it. I might have to send you back to the stables.”

“You dick!” Jean almost pounced across the table before he was held back by Marco and Eren felt the familiar tug of Armin behind him for restraint.

Fuck that. It was all fun and games until Armin manipulative-bastard-pretending-everything-is-okay got involved and was now  _ touching _ Eren. That simply wasn’t going to do.

“Jesus fuck, Armin!” Eren roughly yanked his arms out of Armin’s light grip, making the blonde stumble forward.

He grabbed him by the collar and yanked him down, and Armin’s eyes widened. He’d never seen Eren so upset with him. 

“Touch me again, and  _ you’re dead _ . Drop that stupid fucking act of yours.”

Eren climbed out of the cafeteria table and the busy chatter of students going to their next class wasn’t enough to drown out his thoughts. He stormed off and didn’t see anyone for the rest of the day, opting the back of the library was a suitable place for lunch.

-

“Eren, what the fuck was that?”

Mikasa and Armin were both sitting in the living room by time Eren had walked home. Thankfully, Weilsman didn’t like to have practice the first week of school to let the freshmen get used to things.

“Why is he here?”

“Mika, you should leave,” Armin warned.

She looked between them multiple times and sighed.

“You’re lucky that Mom is out grocery shopping. She’ll be back in an hour,” and with that, Mika went outside and they both heard her car pulling out of the driveway. To where, they didn’t know.

“So…”

“Fuck off, Armin. Literally get out of here if you don’t want to end up with a black eye,”

“A black eye over what, Eren? A stupid project you couldn’t commit yourself to? The fact that you can’t handle being wrong? The way you called me a faggot?” Eren winced. He’d never heard Armin say it for himself.  “And isn’t it funny, Eren, how even though I know I did something bad, I still was nice to you for the sake of our friends so when we both wanted to talk this out, we could do it without concerning everyone? But now, everyone knows what happened, and now we need to fix this. Just apologize, Eren.”

“What the fuck, Armin. You know that you egged me on. You know how I feel about…” Eren got cut off.

_ “GOD-FUCKING-ALMIGHTY, EREN! ARE YOU SO GODDAMN INSECURE THAT YOU CAN’T HANDLE A JOKE ABOUT YOUR FUCKING SEXUALITY?”  _ Eren was stunned to silence. Armin had tears pooling in his eyes.

“Fine Eren, I led you on! I WANTED you to say something bad, but I didn’t know you would’ve said that! Especially to me,” Armin’s voice cracked and Eren did, in fact, feel like shit.

“You have no idea what it’s like, Eren! I only ever gave you a small glimpse. But in middle school, I learned how to do makeup to cover up my bruises. Every night I prayed to God that he’d make me normal. Hell- I considered my own life at one point! And then to hear my best friend, my  _ best fucking friend _ , say that to me in a bout of anger because he doesn’t want to admit something to himself just because I was teasing him, and then he gets more mad at me because of _HIS_ original fuckup, you really think you have nothing to apologize for, Eren?!” And then Armin broke down. He got down on his knees and sobbed. And Eren finally saw through the haircut and new clothes- it was still Armin.

They had all grown up, but they still hadn’t changed. In Eren’s eyes, he realized that they were all still just kids.

So Eren gently came forward and wrapped his arms around Armin’s shaking frame. He let his chin rest on Armin’s head and it bounced lightly every now and then when a sob would rack through Armin’s body. And he felt his fists pounding against Eren’s chest, and he let him. He deserved it.

Eventually Eren dropped his head down and Armin’s ear while his head was still buried in Eren’s chest. 

_ “Please stop crying Armin, I’m sorry.” “I’m so so sorry…” _ A gentle hand glided up and down Armin’s back.  _ “Shh..it’s okay. We’re okay. I’m right here. I’m sorry.” _

When Armin’s tears stifled, he reluctantly hugged Eren back. It had been their first hug since freshman year, and now they were juniors.

“Eren…” Armin pulled back slightly and tilted his chin up, balancing it on Eren’s chest in a similar way to Connie and Sasha, “last semester, I found your porn stash. The gay one. What is going on? What are you so afraid of?”

Eren froze. His limbs went weak, his eyes widened, and Armin knows he hit a nerve. It was Eren’s turn to start crying and blubbering.    


“I’m not… I just…”

“Okay, okay. You’re not. I believe you. It’s okay,” Armin left it at that. They made their way to Eren’s room and laid down in his bed. It was here that Eren realized how much he truly missed Armin’s friendship. Not just over the summer, but in general. Eren knew that something had changed when he went into high school, and he knew what it was, but he was too scared to admit it. But he missed everything him and Armin used to have before he had set his boundaries, and he even missed cuddling, which they were doing right now.

When they were younger, Armin used to be deathly afraid of the dark. Until seventh grade, he held a strong grip on this pink blanket everywhere he went and in a hurry to pack his bag, he forgot to bring his blanket to Eren’s house for a sleepover. He cried and cried in Eren’s bed. It was dark and he couldn’t slip under his protective shield to sleep, so Eren’s brilliant 7th-grade-mind just wrapped his arms around him. So then, it became regular for Eren and Armin to cuddle before bed and Armin no longer needed the blanket to help him sleep at night.

Eren stopped cuddling Armin about halfway into their freshman year. He said it was weird because he didn’t like guys. 

As Eren laid there, combing through Armin’s hair, he wondered: cuddling could be platonic. He used to cuddle with his mom and he definitely didn’t want to fuck his mom (unlike Connie, who once got a big smack to the back of his head by Sasha when he openly called Carla a ‘MILF’ one day at lunch). So here, Eren decided, they could start cuddling again. Armin was right. If Eren liked girls, it wasn’t that big of a deal, right?

And that’s how they spent the time until dinner. Carla walked upstairs to let Eren know, shocked to find Armin wrapped up in his arms as the two gently slept together.

“Grisha, you owe me $20 and a new toy,” Carla would say to her husband later that night.

Later that night, when the two both woke up hungry, Armin just opted to sleep over. So, they were fairly shocked to see leftovers in the fridge with a note in Carla’s writing.

_ ‘Leftovers from dinner! Glad to see that you both made up ;) love you boys!’ _

Armin and Eren shared a smile. They were glad, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay!! so everyone now looks like how they do in season 4 and Marco's look is inspired by the official art (?) Isayama drew for timeskip Marco. Also, historia and ymir will come soon!!! yay :D and i've wanted to see the kids in a fanfic for so long so i'm excited!! see yall soon :DD


	5. Moblit the Guardian Angel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter dedicated to @skye_yeager and @quigglywuiggly :D i always see your guys' comments and thank you for your input!!! and thanks to everyone who has left me comments about what they've liked :v it makes it easier to write chapters when i know you guys like how certain characters are written. okay, onto chapter 5!! <3

The next day at school, Eren embarrassingly made an apology to the group. They didn’t pry as to exactly how or why he and Armin got into a fight, but they let it go and were just happy that everyone was chill again.

Over the next two weeks, everyone began to settle into their old routine. It was a cold Wednesday afternoon and the cafeteria was serving something close to inedible for lunch. Eren sat between Armin and Mikasa as per usual before Jean came up behind Eren, tasering his sides and putting his chin against Eren’s shoulder and smushing their faces together, “Jaegerbomb and I have our first home game tomorrow after school, you all up to watch?”

Everyone nodded, Connie and Sasha exclaiming how they’ll bring signs. Which they did end up doing, and they embarrassingly whooped and catcalled Jean and Eren at every single at bat they had and every time they came on the field to play defense. But, when Eren looked in the stands, he couldn’t see Armin. In fact, Marco wasn’t there either.

 _‘Probably getting actio- no, Armin’s totally a virgin. He excels in anything that isn’t physical,’_ Eren cringed the sound of the umpire calling a strike on Floch (it’s always Floch, isn’t it? Stupid Floch) as it snapped him out of his thoughts. 

The game ended and the Sina High Titans took victory over the Trost Scouts, but Eren didn’t pay attention to that as his friends congratulated him and Jean. He was more preoccupied wondering where Armin was, even as the water ran cold in the locker room showers. Jean peaked over the wall separating the showers from the rest of the room, “Hey Jaeger, as much as I respect sex workers and public nudity, I think you’re scaring away the freshmen by letting it hang out for so long."

“They shouldn’t let big sizes intimidate them,” Eren smirked, wringing out his hair lightly and shutting off the shower. He wrapped a towel around his waist, padding out lightly to change into his clothes with Jean close on his tail. He took a seat across from Eren on a bench while Eren changed, talking about the game. 

“Hey, unrelated but did you see Armin and Marco? I thought they were coming,” he tried not to make his frown apparent but it didn’t work. He finished buttoning his jeans and looked at Jean, which made him feel better because Jean wore the exact same frown Eren did.

“I don’t know, man. Usually Marco has come to all our opening games for pre-season, I wish I could tell you really. It’d give me a piece of mind,” Jean’s eyes flickered before he stood up and lightly brushed himself off. Eren slipped on his shoes, grabbed his bag, and made his way out of the locker room with Jean treading behind him.

As they came to the parking lot, Eren noticed their group huddled near Sasha’s minivan.

“Giddy up, Bullseye! That’s a good boy, following his master!” Eren whistled to Jean as they approached, which led to Jean dropping his equipment and pouncing on Eren’s back, putting him in a headlock.

“Okay guys, settle up. Pizza time, Sasha’s mom’s treat,” Reiner yelled which immediately grabbed the attention of the starving baseball players.

Once Jean had dismounted Eren, Mikasa came up to give him a congratulatory hug and peck on the cheek before helping him adjust his bag in the limited space of the Mikasa’s trunk while the rest piled into Sasha’s minivan (Eren was fairly sure he saw them squishing Falco in between the space of the two second row seats).

“Hey Mika, do you know where Armin is?”

“Yeah, he said he just had something important come up.”

—

Apparently, “important” was Armin’s new marine biology club.

Apparently, Eren wasn’t allowed to be at this club because Armin had said it “conducted their activities differently”, even though Eren was smart enough to know this meant illegal (although he wasn’t quite sure how they pulled it off, he trusted Armin to be able to talk himself out of anything...especially that one time Armin talked himself out of therapy after his mom caught him performing rituals on handmade voodoo dolls replicating his bullies in the 6th grade).

(...now all Eren could think about is how he really hoped Armin had let that phase go.)

So there he was, sitting outside the school building while Mikasa had probably already gotten home about two hours ago. The team only had conditioning that day, so Eren had enough time to text Armin, shower, get dressed, get the response that Armin had his marine biology club, and then tell Mikasa that he’d wait to walk home with Armin.

And he was still sitting there waiting.

Time dragged on agonizingly for the next thirty minutes, which was a perfect opportunity to catch up on homework for the night (which Eren graciously didn’t take and ended up scrolling through social media until Armin came out). 

Eventually, Armin had to come out of the building and he did with the biggest smile on his face. He spotted Eren and ran up to him, thanking him for waiting so long, and then started talking.

“Hey so Eren did you know that-” 

_‘No, Eren doesn’t know. Wanna know what Eren knows? His ass hurts from that stupid bench. That’s what Eren knows,’_

“-and they don’t have teeth so they swallow their prey whole! Aren’t sea creatures just fascinating?” Armin sighed happily, tilting his head back and letting his face being hit by the setting sun ahead of them. 

“So I’m guessing you like this new club?”

“Yeah! The president is super crazy, like I don’t really know why they’re allowed to interact with the general populace, but the vice keeps them in check. Oh yeah! And there’s this weird senior who’s only there to put it on their college apps but their friend comes with them because apparently he’s ‘bad at interacting’ so he helps him!! Isn’t that so cute and nice?” There was a glow in Armin’s eyes that Eren read as a ‘I made friends outside of my friend group since middle school’ type of joy. 

“-and there’s also this guy with like...HUGE pecks. Like, the guy has honkers,” Eren chuckled at Armin’s uncharacteristic use of slang, “and he has a nice girlfriend who is friends with the president, so she comes sometimes, too!” His smile stretched so largely that Eren could see the indents of his faint dimples and he was so busy looking at Armin that he ran into a mailbox.

He pulled away groaning, holding his stomach before looking at the mailbox and seeing four different colored handprints surrounding a very lovely written “Jaeger”.

He turned to Armin, a pained smile making way onto his face as he offered a weak thumbs up, “We’re home.”

-

And that’s how it continued for the next two weeks. Eren would go to practice, change, and wait for Armin to walk home. After the first week, Mikasa was getting slightly irritated that her little brother kept coming home at 6pm when he could be getting home at 3pm.

_“Eren, Armin is a big boy. Please just get in the car,” Mikasa deadpanned._

_“No, what if he gets set on fire and burnt to a crisp? Who’s gonna be there and yell at someone to save him, Mika? Who will it be?”_

_“Fine. At least you know how utterly useless you would be if that situation were to ever happen,” and Eren waved as she drove off._

Until one day, a figure burst out of the school doors. Their glasses, _‘or are those goggles?’_ , glinted as the sunset hit them. Said student glanced frantically around the school entrance before the two finally made eye contact and the stranger started bounding towards them. Eren noticed their lab coat (messy lab coat, messier than Eren’s room and damn that’s messy) waving in the wind at the velocity of the speed they were running at.

 _‘Oh no, a crazy scientist has come to kill me-’_ Eren made a cross motion before clasping his hands together in terror, _‘Dear God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in heav-’_

“EREEEEEEEEEN!” a banshee-screech bellowed from the figure as it rapidly approached him and Eren quickened his prayer before he died, trying to make amends with God really quickly before he got banished from the two pearly gates.

He felt two arms wrap around him tightly before he realized he was knocked to the ground, all of the air in his lungs being pushed out of him while the stranger laid on top of him, rocking them side to side on the ground as they buried their hair in his chest. He could barely hear the words they were saying as he tried to gasp for breath.

“Oh, Armin was right! You smell **_so_ ** good! So do your armpits! Is that natural, or do you just have good deodorant? Oh man, your body temperature is so **hot**! Do you think you’ll let me take your temper-”

“ _HANJI!_ Get off of him!” is all he heard before the leech was ripped off of him forcefully. Eren eagerly climbed on all fours weakly to his chestnut-haired-God, pawing at his feet and hugging his calves.

“I thought I was a goner... Thank you God for sending me my guardian angel,” He cried towards the sky, clutching tightly to the stranger and getting their pant leg embarrassingly wet with tears. 

“Woah, calm down there gentle giant,” he heard another unfamiliar voice sneer as other footsteps approached the scene rapidly.

“Oh god- Eren!” he heard Armin yelp and the familiar grasp of Armin’s hands underneath his arms and yanking him away from his guardian angel. He whacked Armin off and snuggled closer to his angel’s legs. “Stop Armin! God sent me my angel because I prayed and I can’t let you distract me from His gift!” The desperate teen wailed, trying to stay attached to his God’s leg as Armin made feeble attempts to pull him off.

“Come _on_ Moblit, just let me touch him!” He pried his eyes open and looked across to the voice and it was the lab-coated student talking to his fairy Godmother, whose name was apparently Moblit. They were being held back by a giant blonde guy, who Eren recognized as Erwin Smith, the student council/ASB president for their school. There was an extremely short boy next to him and Eren thinks that the mad scientist would be dead if looks could kill, considering the intense scowl he was aiming their way.

_‘Wow, I can’t believe that kid is disrespecting his upperclassman like that-’_

“Hey kid,” a soft voice broke Eren’s thoughts, “as much as I appreciate your gratitude, I’m gonna need you to let go now,” he looked up towards the sweet smiling face of his new religion and scrambled off him, getting to his feet.

“Eren, are you okay?” Armin forcefully flipped Eren to inspect him, dusting off his shoulders and legs and-

“Sorry for Hanji, they just get excited about new people,” This was Erwin talking to him. After Armin’s thorough brush-off-non-existent-dust parade, Eren turned to see him. Said scientist that he was still holding back, Hanji, was drooling at the mouth. Or was that foam? Is it rabid?

“Tch. Stupid four-eyes,” the freshman rolled his eyes and Eren gasped, “Why do you keep disrespecting your upperclassman like that?”

Everyone froze. Hanji slurped their drool-foam back into their mouth. A pin dropped somewhere, Eren was sure.

The small freshman shook with anger as he stalked forward. He jumped so his foot and Eren’s face were making eye contact, and then he delivered an intense roundhouse kick to the side of his face, causing Eren to fall to the ground for the second time within the past 10 minutes. Armin gasped, once again coming to Eren’s aid as Eren looked back up at the freshman, dazed.

“I. am. a. senior.” Everyone else could see the fiery flames of hell burning behind this guy too, right? Oh shit, this dude is a senior and he’s _still_ that short? And he hangs out with mad-scientist Hanji? Yikes, pick a struggle.

Said-senior was now being pushed back by Godsent-Moblit, who was saying, “Calm down, Levi. It’s not like the poor guy knew,” 

_‘Yeah_ **_Levi_ ** _, the poor guy didn’t know. Aw, look at guardian angel saving me again.’_

-

So these were Armin’s new club members, Eren had come to find out after the whole fiasco.

Hanji, the club president and Moblit, the vice. Levi, the one who needs the club for his college apps and Erwin, the nice one who helps Levi socialize. The guy with “huge pecks”, Miche, and his girlfriend Nanaba weren’t able to be at the club meet today because it was their one year anniversary, but everyone made sure to assure Eren that they were good people. All in all, they were a nice group, Eren came to think as him and Armin walked home from the diner. They all ended up taking Eren out as an apology for Hanji nearly killing him (Moblit paid for his meal in his casual God manner) so now him and Armin were simply making their way home.

“You think I smell good?”

“What?” Armin squeaked. Classic Armin.

“Hanji said something about how you said I smell good," he chuckled, “what do I smell like?”

Armin chuckled nervously, “Uhm...well. You smell like…” he trailed off nervously, almost as if he was trying to convey something without saying something else. Eren supposed it _was_ pretty weird to try and tell someone how good they smell.

“You smell like uh.. You know like… minty. You smell really minty and cinnamon-y or nutmeg-y. But also like citrus, too,” the blonde shyly uttered. Eren wasn’t sure how the combination of all those scents turned out into something good, but he would take it. And he felt kinda weird, since the only way he could describe the way Armin smells is just like “Armin”. They fell into silence once again.

“So does Marco know about the new club?” Eren piped up again. Maybe he should just shut up.

“No, we haven’t talked for a few days,” He looked over at Armin who kept his usual small smile on his face.

“Why not? Don’t you text the people you date? Isn’t it weird to go that long without talking?” Not that Eren knew anything about relationships, his only and longest relationship lasted for an entire recess period in 1st grade.

“Well it’s kinda weird to text someone after you break up.”

_“WHAT?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay!! now the plot will finally start to thicken >:) sorry for taking so long to introduce everyone, and thanks to those who have been keeping up with the story!!! love you all and see you in the next chapter <3


	6. Let's Get Pregnant!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as you guys can tell, I don't really have an upload schedule, sorry :p but you know how it be. i hope everyone's doing good/are having a good day!! okay, onto chapter 6 <3

_‘WHATTTT?’_ the same scream emerged at the group’s school lunch table the next day, causing everyone in the cafeteria to spare a glance their way and a supervisor asking them to quiet down but they didn’t have time for that. Everyone looked incredulously at Armin and Marco.

“You guys were together for two seconds! Literally, if this was a book or something, it wouldn’t even have lasted a chapter! That’s so weak. Not only that, but you guys didn’t even tell us!” Sasha wailed through a mouth full of food but the rest of the table agreed. Apparently, Armin and Marco had broken up at the beginning of the week after spending four short, delightful months together.

The two scholars were flushed red from head to toe in embarrassment. Marco opted to hide his face in his hands while Armin just kept rolling his eyes. 

“We didn’t want to start any drama in the group. Eventually you guys would find out, but we didn’t want any tension between anyone,” that was for Eren and Jean. Everyone and their mother knew that the last sentence was for Eren and Jean. It was true, though. If the two boys had talked about their breakup that monday publicly, Eren and Jean would’ve been at each other’s throats in order to defend their two best friends.

“Marco and I are just fine. We didn’t lose feelings or anything, we both just agreed that we’d rather focus on junior year first because it’s more important than maintaining a relationship,”

“-and junior year grades are the most important. Once this year is over, we will be back together officially,” Marco chimed in happily.

“So you guys aren’t even broken up, you’re just on a break because you are both down bad for like, Moby Dick and shit?” Connie asked. Eren really wanted to laugh, but he knew this was a serious question for Connie. Connie was really a great person and friend, honestly, but it was pretty apparent that he wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box. What shocked Eren more though was when Falco shared a glance with Connie and began nodding eagerly, wanting to also know the answer with the same expression of seriousness splayed on his face. Reiner took note of this and indiscreetly shuffled Falco away from where Connie was sat, wanting better for his cousin and his academic career. Armin and Marco nodded regardless, though.

“You guys aren’t even broken up, then. Why did you make it sound so dramatic, Eren?” Annie turned to Eren, looking across at him since Mikasa was sandwiched between them. He held his hands up dramatically in defense, “I just said what I was told!”

“No, Eren, you said the first thing you heard and didn’t listen when I explained,” Armin was doing the thing where he pinched the bridge of his nose again. “Anyway, there is no bad blood between us and since we’re still technically together there wasn’t any reason to bring it up. See?” Armin flung his arms out around Marco’s waist, snuggling into his side and then turning his face upwards to give the freckled boy a quick kiss, “no bad blood, no drama. We just have our priorities set straight and can’t give our relationship the time and effort it deserves, so let’s not talk about this anymore.” The group just shrugged their shoulders, as if to just say _‘Yeah, that checks out’_ and started talking about their lives and whatnot again, no longer bringing Armin or Marco up as a topic of discussion. 

So they were still together. Eren didn’t know why he was disappointed or why he was the only one still hung up on the dead conversation, but damn was he so happy that he ran with it when Armin initially said they were broken up. He kept thinking of it, even as they went to class, even when he saw Armin give a goodbye hug to Marco before they left the cafeteria, even as he got home (and didn’t wait for Armin this time around). He kept thinking and thinking and Eren had probably thought more about Armin and Marco’s relationship in that one night than he ever had in his entire life.

The weekend came, and Armin and Marco were back in the stands for Eren and Jean’s game on saturday along with all their friends. Marco had to go to his little sister’s birthday during their opening game, excusing his absence and relieving Jean of his odd stress over the freckled-boys non attendance. Afterwards, they all celebrated as per usual. Sasha ate 3 pizzas, hot wings, and cheesy bread alone, the rest of them ate 3 pizzas and an extra order of bread combined. Mikasa did her weekly ‘pray-for-Sasha’s-parents’-bank-account’ despite Sasha being the most well off in the group and Annie even decided to join her. Eren pulled up a porn tab later that night and… and…

-

Armin was easy to realize the terrible edge in Eren’s mood. Every and all sentences aimed towards him were blocked by either 1) a sarcastic comment, 2) an insult, 3) a bark. A literal fucking bark, or 3) a silent nod or shake of the head. Eren’s usually bright eyes had an uncharastic dull that didn’t even sparkle with malice when Jean made an offhand comment towards him. This was a different type of upset than Jean had seen at practice, as that had been a combination of anger towards Eren himself and Armin. This anger looked like Eren wasn’t even mad at someone. Just something. Even the kids noticed Eren’s attitude and stood away from him, convinced he would lash out if given the chance. 

As always, Floch messed things up later that day. Always Floch, huh? It even felt like a swear word to Eren, even as he thought it he began to bleep it out.

“Hey Eren, everything alright, man?” Fl*ch approached Eren in the dugout, slapping a hand on his shoulder like they were best buddies. 

Oh no, Fl*ch, you guys certainly are not best buddies. Eren deducted right then and there that Fl*ch wasn’t even in the vicinity of the acquaintance-zone. Fl*ch resided in the ‘I-forgot-you-exist-but-now-you’re-talking-to-me-and-I-can’t-avoid-it’ zone in Eren’s mind.

“Woof woof,” Eren shrugged his hand off fiercely by the violent jerk of his shoulder, grabbed his fielding glove and left the dugout.

Once practiced ended, Eren waited for Armin as per usual. Hanji and Levi walked out with Armin this time, but Hanji still bounded over happily to Eren and hugged him tighter than a human should hug another. They also buried their nose into his armpit and he felt their body shift as they inhaled deeply before letting it out and jumping from foot to foot, still clinging onto Eren. He just let them, though. I mean, who wouldn’t have an ego boost from naturally good smelling armpits?

Eventually, Levi pulled them off and Hanji began talking.

“So, Eren! We wanted to ask if you wanted to go to a get-together this friday! We invited Armin, but we figured he would need a friend because **WOW** is he bad at socializing on his own! I’m surprised he joined our club hahaha- _OW_!” 

“Stop the rambling, four-eyes. It’s at Miche’s house, his parents are gone for the weekend. You brats game?” Levi didn’t wait for an answer, “Okay cool. Shitty Glasses will send Armin the details, just show up and be ready to stay over.”

“Do you guys not have parents? You really think they’ll let me stay over at a _senior’s_ house?” Eren questioned angrily.

“Calm down there, gentle giant. You forget I’m 18 and can do whatever I want. Yes, if you lie enough. Be there at 9:00 sharp tomorrow, because we’re gonna fucking party, kiddos.” 

So Levi just accepted the invitation for them, not cool. Eren stalked off, Armin chasing after him and falling into step.

"So...how was school today?"

"Can it, Ar, I really don't want to talk right now."

"Eren, what could've possibly happened between yesterday evening and this morning that made you so pissed off?"

Eren sighed. The silence stretched as he thought of how to phrase it. Armin kept his gaze trained on Eren, occasionally looking ahead to see where they were walking. The blonde truly wished, at times like these, he could read minds. It would be really convenient. A small, nearly inaudible sentence came from Eren a second later.

"Huh, come again?"

" _icouldntgetitup_ "

"Eren, I'm a human. Not a psychic. Speak up."

"I couldn't get it up!" Armin looked around frantically to make sure there was no one else around him. Coincidentally, there was. A nice old lady across the street selling flowers at the corner. From the furrowed brows, he had no doubt she heard Eren's outburst. Armin stopped, grumbling something on how he'd ' _heard some stupid shit before, Eren, but this is some stupid shit."_

Eren looked at Armin, shock painted all over his face, "Stupid shit? This is not stupid shit! I felt so horny, and I couldn't get it up to my favorite MILF! I couldn't get hard no matter what video I watched!" Eren whispered harshly.

"Sometimes our bodies just work like that, Eren. It doesn't mean anything, oh my god, you baboon," Eren took this as his answer. His mood immediately perked up and he started to talk about Miche's party and convinced Armin to go, saying it will be fun with Eren there.

Eren decided to leave out the fact that he got hard when he went back to watching gay porn. Armin was right, guys. Our bodies just work like that sometimes. And it counts because femboys look like girls and Eren loved everything about girls. He reasoned with himself that girls moaned too fake, too, making it difficult to get hard. See? Armin knows everything. Eren knew he wasn't gay because human bodies were, to quote from Eren's thoughts, ' _straight up wack'_ and therefore this meant that getting off to straight porn wasn't gay. It's just the way the world worked, who was Eren to defy it?

-

After texting Hanji to get every detail about the party to get its statistical safety, he deemed only a 17% chance of having something god awful and/or life-changing happen.

Then again, Armin also said that it was a small get-together with the exception of a few outside friends.

Armin said a lot of things, Eren came to find.

So Eren didn’t really know why when they walked in at 9:30pm (after being promptly dropped off by their cover story, Sasha and Connie) there were at least 50 to 60 more people than he anticipated. The aroma of spilled beer and sweaty teens invaded his nostrils and he could feel Armin pressing into his side in fear. Oh man, did Eren want to be brave for Armin. He really did. But how could he be brave when some dude with big ass pecks came up to him and sniffed him a few seconds after observing the party.

Eren stood still with fear. Standing now at 6 feet, this guy still managed to tower over Eren and make him feel small. Big ass pecks then moved on to sniff Armin, who just let big pecks sniff him and he smiled.

“Hey Miche! Nice house and thanks for the invite!” Armin yelled over the music, “We won’t stay for long, I have to go back home and study!” Ah. Big-peck Miche, Eren recalled Armin's description when he was talking about the club.

“Oh come on kid,” Miche slung a muscular arm around Armin’s tiny frame, nearly making him disappear into his side, “have some fun! It’s the weekend now!”

Hanji came barreling up to them, doing their sniff-Eren’s-armpit-ritual before hugging Armin. No longer covered in a lab coat (shocking), they wore a wrinkled yellow button up and jeans. The signature goggles and craziness seemed unwavering, though.

“Hey guys! Glad you came, here, let’s go get drinks!” Before they were able to answer, Hanji grabbed the two boys by their forearms and dragged them through the crowd and into the kitchen. Levi was already there, sipping from a red solo cup, talking to Erwin. They both greeted them and were given two identical red solo cups. Armin politely declined, opting to get a drink for himself but Eren the walking dumbass took the drink with gratefulness. He didn’t exactly remember Coke tasting so similar to hand sanitizer, though.

Eren had finished his half-filled solo cup by time Armin had made his way back to the kitchen with a can of Sprite in hand.

“Eren, let’s leave after I finish my drink, okay? This isn’t really my scene,” Armin propped up on his tiptoes to whisper into Eren’s ear, tugging on his jacket sleeve while his hot breath against the shell of Eren’s ear added to the warmth that was spreading throughout the brunette's body. He slung an arm around his best friend and chuckled, tilting down to say a quick _‘you should loosen up,’_ , and then requesting another drink from Levi before turning back to re-spark his previous conversation with Erwin. Levi grabbed a Coke from the fridge and a bottle of rum, mixing the drink, and Eren didn’t realize the first time about what he was putting into his body but now he did and oh shit he was drinking alcohol oh god oh fuc-

The red solo cup was shoved into his hands a few seconds later. Levi re-entered the conversation.

“Eren Kruger Jaeger, if you dare take a sip from that, I will forcefully drag us out of the house.” Armin’s threat was empty, Eren deduced in his foggy-minded state, and he told Armin that he couldn’t even feel a thing. One more couldn’t hurt, he argued. Armin eventually gave in since he couldn’t smell anything on Eren’s breath.

One more didn’t actually end up hurting.

What did hurt though, was seven more. And four straight shots of straight Balkan Vodka (kudos to Miche’s parents) after Armin was forced to give into peer pressure from Hanji, who said that Armin was too-uptight for their liking. And that’s how Eren, Armin, Hanji, Moblit, Nanaba, and Miche ended up sitting in a circle in the living room at 1am with all other party-goers already gone. The thoughts of studying were long away from the front of Armin's mind, actually Armin was thinking about how cute baby goats were as he snuggled into Eren’s side. Eren wasn’t even sure he was thinking. He was just staring at the wall, but the wall was making fun shapes so Eren wasn’t bothered.

“Your turn, Eren! Truthsies or daresies!” Hanji giggled, throwing their hands up and falling sideways into Moblit’s lap. He patted their head and scratched at their nape, taking another drink from his cup.

“Uh.. truth-pees, haha. Pee…” Eren was still looking at the wall, so he didn’t notice Hanji getting on all fours and crawling towards him. “Oh no, spider attackkk!” Armin yelled, throwing both hands over his eyes. Hanji grabbed at Eren’s chin, squishing his cheeks and forcing them to be face-to-face.

“Why don’t you join my club? Water is so nice, can I kiss you?”

“No! Water is for drinking, not fish. Go back to the pond if you want to be such a silly goose!” Eren and Hanji laughed, but their hand was soon swatted down by Armin who took the liberty of crawling into Eren’s lap and sticking his arms out in a defensive position. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a loud bang upstairs and the faint yell of Levi.

 _“Fuck, yes! Erwin!”_

The group began catcalling and they distantly heard a door unlock, a loud “Fuck off!” and then the conversation continued.

“As I was saying,” Armin held up an indicated finger as his words slurred, “no kissing! You can’t get Eren pregnant, _I_ want to do the pregnant kiss!” He cried, shoving his face down against his hands and his shoulders shook up and down. Nanaba, bless her sweet soul, crawled over in her drunken state and wrapped herself around the Armin-shaped-ball.

“It’s okay, baby, you can give Eren the pregnancy kiss,” she cooed lightly as the two blondes cuddled (still in Eren’s lap, by the way). Miche sniffed the air half-hazardly before turning back to the group, “I smell sexual tension and false information,” and Moblit nodded, tapping their drinks together, “Fuck yeah, man, cheers to that.”

“Can I give you the pregnancy kiss, please?” Armin turned around sharply, Nanaba’s arms still wrapped tightly around him.

“Yeah Eren, let’s get pregnannttt!” Hanji whooped, making their way back into Moblit’s lap.

At this point, Levi and Erwin stumbled downstairs, both clad in all of their shirtless glory and purple marks randomly scattered across both their chests with no shame of the activities that were previously going on. Nanaba turned to Levi, “Levi, are you pregnant now? Armin wants to get Eren pregnant! Tell us your experience, baby mama!” 

Taking note of the feeling of cum spilling as out his ass as they spoke, Levi gave a tipsy response of, “It feels fucking great, let's get knocked up,” before joining the circle with Erwin between Moblit and Miche.

“See, Er-Bear!” Armin threw his arms around Eren’s neck, bringing the brunette back to reality, “let’s have a baby! Mmmwahh” Armin puckered his lips and started leaning in, which lightly sobered Eren up. In a reaction that was too fast for drunk people to commit, Eren slotted his own hand between him and Armin’s mouths. 

“Mmhm?” Armin’s mouth was muffled. Eren stood up, promptly knocking Armin to the ground, and went to the front door. He walked in a circle. Checked the inside of his shoes, and then looked at his feet. Eren sat back with the group and pulled Armin back into his lap so the blonde was straddling him.

“Why-Why did you walk away?” Armin’s bottom lip quivered as new tears filled the brink of his eyes.

“It’s not gay if you have socks on,” Eren rolled around his heavy head to the side and around before bringing it back infront of Armin’s, knocking their foreheads together and tried blocking out the chatter of the circle but to no avail.

_‘Is he serious, Moby?’_

_‘God I hope not,’_

_‘Levi, why are you smiling? Since when can you do that?’_

Armin clapped his hands together happily, in the fashion of a toddler, before pulling his head backwards and victoriously throwing his hands up in the air. The circle of drunken, horny teens, kept an intense stare on the two as Armin brought his hands down to Eren’s face swiftly, gripping his jawline and crushing their faces together in a kiss. The circle of teens cheered them on, especially when the kiss began getting heated. Their tongues moved sloppily and Eren moved his hand to grip Armin’s ass, forcing it down to grind on his lap as his other hand was held behind him for support. The loudest cheer came from Levi, who was drunkenly cackling as Eren brought his knees up lightly and his feet flat, giving Eren enough leverage to start lightly thrusting his hips upward and circling his hips before bringing his hips back down. Armin pulled back for air, cheering loudly and standing up, leaving Eren to stare up at him with blown out eyes and swollen lips. 

“We’re pregnant! I’m having a baby!! Wooooooo!” He chanted and everyone congratulated him and Eren. 

_‘It’s not gay if you have a baby. Only straight people have babies,’_ Eren thought, deeming that it checked out and the pornographic show he just put on was actually pretty straight of him.

Go Eren!

-

After waking up at Miche’s, Sasha picked them up at 11am the next day and let them both shower and freshen up at her place as her parents were already out at work. Eren was pretty chippy, gushing to Sasha about how awesome the party was and how the marine biology club was actually full of some pretty cool people.

Armin stayed quiet the entire time, playing with the edges of his sweater and toying with the holes in his jeans as Sasha drove them both home. He couldn’t meet Eren’s eyes and Eren just chuckled at Armin silently from the passenger seat of the minivan, thinking about how funny it was that it was nearing 2pm and Armin was still hungover. Sasha chatted them up, but Eren could only think about how next time, he would limit Armin’s intake because wow, did Armin seem on edge. He probably felt bad, it was Armin’s first party and first time drinking, anyways. Eren understood the jitters that he once faced back in freshman year when Connie and him snuck into Connie’s parents stash during a sleepover.

Silly, silly Armin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> silly silly armin


	7. Operation Gay-ger

“Wow, what a fucking oaf. Who completely forgets? Seriously, I’ve had my fair share of times I drank more than my weight, but it always comes back in the end. You’re telling me it’s been two weeks and the guy still doesn’t have a clue?”

“Yes! If he knew, he wouldn’t keep trying to cuddle me!” Armin groaned his reply to Levi, keeping his head buried in his arms.

“Oh c’mon Squirt, maybe that’s a good thing for the guy. He doesn’t remember, you can totally forget and move on. It was a drunken mistake anyways,” the senior shrugged, taking a long sip of tea from his travel mug as Armin continued his rant. He and Armin were the only two left behind in the club room, seeing as everyone left about an hour prior and Armin made sure to tell Eren to go home with Mikasa so he wasn’t kept waiting.

“You don’t understand! What if one day Eren just, y’know, remembers? That will end in a terrible disaster!” His voice cracked and went up a few octaves, running nervous hands through his hair.

“Why?”

Armin’s eyes shot up. He gave an unhumorous laugh, and just cocked his head to the side. “You remember the party, right?” Levi nodded, “Okay, good. So you remember when he spent 5 minutes checking to make sure he had socks on, right?” Levi nodded again, a smirk ghosting upon his usual frown.

“Yeah, that was real funny. Didn’t know that Jaeger kept the jokes coming even when he was hammered. What? What’s with the face?” Levi saw Armin’s face turn into a strange concoction of scared, sad, confused, baffled, every emotion under the sun and Armin’s face experienced it within the 3 seconds it took for Levi to utter those few words. He took another sip from his mug, slower this time to watch Armin as he responded.

“You didn’t come to think that he was serious?” Tea was now all over Armin’s face. Levi apologized for his shocked-spit take and retrieved his mom’s old handkerchief from the front pocket of his backpack, wiping Armin down and muttering more apologies.

“He wasn’t serious,” Levi factually stated, now cleaning his travel mug of all his spittel residue. Armin’s suggestion really did shock him, after all.

It was now Armin’s turn to explain that Eren actually _was_ serious. As serious as a funeral, mind you. Levi listened intently as Armin spoke, explaining Eren’s boundaries, what he considered gay and not gay, and eventually confided in Levi about the gay porn, the trouble with getting a boner and all the “I’m straight” humbo jumbo. The poor man looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his skull in shock, his travel mug long abandoned by time Armin had been done explaining everything.

Levi swallowed heavily, processing the information. Instead of being a total jerk about it, he sighed and looked Armin in the eyes.

“So, he’s in denial. Do you know why?”

“Well I have a theory on it,” Levi nodded to keep him going, “when we were younger, Eren had some really bad anger issues. He got bullied for them and got into fights a lot until his parents took him to a child psychiatrist. It was actually a hereditary thing on either of his parents’ sides, I’m not too sure on specifics, but compared to Mikasa he probably thinks he’s caused a lot of trouble for the family. I think he sees being gay as another problem for his family to deal with, but I could be wrong,” Armin looked down thoughtfully, picking at the dirt underneath his nails.

“I really am at a loss, Lee. I don’t want to tell Marco, there’s no need. I don’t like Eren, it was honestly a drunken mistake. But how do I tell Eren without losing my best friend again? I could handle losing him over the summer, but that was over a petty project and was fixable. This is a genuine thing that he has a problem with and I want to help, like all friends would want to, but I can’t even rack up a thought on how to approach this. As much as I want to ‘just forget’, I can't risk him remembering and then losing all his trust in me. If I tell him, we lose everything we’ve worked towards in trying to get our old friendship back. There literally are no wins here.”

Levi hummed a response, getting up from the school desk and sliding his backpack on. 

“Where are you going? Are you just gonna leave me high and dry?” Armin mumbled, leaning his cheek on his hand in order to look up at Levi.

“Nope, we’re going to my house. I really wanna help you, Armin, but I need some more tea.”

-

Armin never really expected to become close friends with a senior, let alone Levi. Dare he say he was in best friend territory with the guy after one night.

When they got to his small apartment, they began to talk about Levi and leave the Eren conversation at bay until the nighttime, but not before Armin texted his grandpa to let him know he would be spending the night at a friend’s house.

Levi Ackerman was a famous name at their school, and Armin was shocked that Eren didn’t know him upon their first meeting but it’s not like Eren was really aware of the outside world anyways. Levi has exceeded everyone’s expectations of him. Walking into class as a short, sarcastic, lewd asshole didn’t give teachers much hope, but he built a title for himself. He finished at the top of his class every year without fail, straight-A’s across the board. Him and Armin were extremely similar, he’d come to find. Except Levi volunteered during the week and on weekends while Armin had to drop volunteering at Mina’s and tutoring at his middle school in order to pick up and focus on 3 extra AP’s, resulting in 4 total. The blonde had already promised himself to pick them both back up once the 2nd semester came back full swing, though.

Levi himself still had six classes per day even as a senior, seven if you included being section leader of the trumpets in the school band. He took all APs, to which Armin called him crazy for and Levi responded with a sly _‘maybe I am’_. On top of that, Levi volunteered every other day at the local orphanage a few miles from the school. 

_‘I only go for a few hours,’ Levi mused, ‘but I honestly love to see the kids. I play with them, I bring them food, I just want to make their lives a little better. I know the panic of not having parents anymore, so I hope what I do is memorable for them. Also, at the last hour of the day, they’re usually too tired to do anything else so they sit around me and watch me study. Isn’t that convenient? I love those little brats, I hope I get to see them grow up one day or something.’_

To his surprise, Armin was able to learn a lot about Levi. He actually lived with his Uncle Kenny, but he didn’t always. The man actually grew up in France with his mom, who was rather poor at the time. She passed in a hit and run when she was walking home from work, and since his dad was out of the picture, Levi’s only known relative was his uncle who had immigrated to the United States from France.

 _‘Sometimes I wonder, why me, y’know? But, it’s not so bad here with my Uncle Kenny. He works downtown as the owner of this fancy-shmancy bar so we get by alright,’_ Armin recalled the conversation in the early hours in the morning as he stared at the ceiling of Levi’s bedroom, recalling the events of the night, _‘I mean, not everyone’s uncle teaches them how to use a knife and a gun or how to fight within the first few weeks of meeting them, but that old bastard made my life pretty damn great. You know what he told me after my 8th grade graduation? Well, I graduated as the valedictorian of the class, right? That old fuck came up to me, gave me the biggest hug I’ve ever received in my life, and looked me dead in the eyes and told me that I was his damned pride and joy,’_ He remembers seeing Levi smiling with teeth for the first time after that recollection.

Due to Levi living in poverty and experiencing malnourishment at a constant for the first seven years of his life, Armin put together the pieces as to why Levi was built the way he was and why he acted the way he did. Levi even showed off his impeccable mother tongue to Armin, who was thoroughly impressed since he could never detect an accent in Levi’s voice during the short two months he knew the guy.

_‘And that’s why you’re in the club for the college apps?’ Armin asked, hoping to not be invasive. ‘Yep. Hoping to get a full-ride to somewhere fancy. Then Kenny doesn’t have to worry about debt and once I get rich off of being a doctor, I can finally get him out of this shithole apartment and into a nice home,’ Levi chuckled, setting his mug in the sink before coming back to the couch. ‘I only really joined because I’ve known Hanji for so long, but it turns out the shit is actually fun. Even has some pretty cool kiddos in there, too,’ They bumped shoulders and laughed._

Another thing he learned about Levi: he was actually very intact with his emotions and was open about them, along with his personal life, with the right people. In fact, after their little sleepover, Armin would deem him as the most emotional person he’s ever met, but Levi is so intact with his emotions that he knew how to hide them well. 

Eventually, they got back onto the Eren situation. At this point, Levi and Armin had moved to Levi’s bedroom. Levi was sitting against the headboard of his bed studying for his AP Psychology class while Armin sat next to him and laid his head on the senior’s shoulder, elaborating the situation while overlooking the textbook. He rambled mostly to himself, working out the problem and giving Levi his time to study.

Which brings us back to the current time, which was 3am. Levi stopped studying and homework around 2am and they both found the solution to the Eren problem at 1am, so they talked for about an hour before they both heard the opening and closing of the front door, indicating that Kenny was home. Kenny quickly walked down the short hallway and knocked on Levi’s door before entering, finding the blonde and the dark-haired male laying down and facing each other as they both laid on the pillows of Levi’s bed. Armin turned his head in shock, scared of what the sight might look like from an outside perspective, but Kenny just gave a small wave and a smirk that could be classified as sinister looking.

“Hello, Levi friend or possible boyfriend, I am Uncle Kenny. Breakfast at 6:00 every morning, no exceptions,” he flicked his head upwards, now addressing Levi, “bed, _Avorton_ _‘runt’_ , you wake up with headache. Goodnight,” the tall, slender man with a heavy French accent, Uncle Kenny, flicked the light off and Levi huffed a laugh as they heard the man walk back down the wall and into his room.

“Why didn’t you tell me your uncle was cool?”

“I don’t tell lies. That old man is as cool as a broken AC,” the elder joked before flipping over to face the wall, “get some sleep, Squirt. We still have school tomorrow,” and Armin complied easily.

-

As promised, Armin was woken by Levi at 5:50 to prepare for breakfast at 6am sharp.

After brushing his teeth with a spare toothbrush and using Levi’s face wash, he made his way out to the kitchen to eat. On the menu was Eggo waffles, kindly prepared by the tired-looking Kenny.

“ _Merci beaucoup, Oncle,_ ” 

_‘Thank you very much, Uncle’_ Levi spoke appreciatively in his mother tongue, in which Kenny nodded in acknowledgement.

“Thank you for the breakfast, Mr. Ackerma-”

“No,” Kenny cut him off, making his way back to the kitchen to clean up.

“Huh?”

“How I introduce… I introduce myself as Uncle Kenny, no?” He jested, back still turned to Armin who just nodded in realization.

“Thank you for the breakfast, Uncle Kenny. I appreciate the food and letting me stay the night,” Armin corrected, digging into the meal. Kenny grunted in what Armin could identify as happily.

-

Eren was upset. Is anyone shocked? He’s been upset for like, the past three chapters. Eren being upset was just formality at this point.

Not only did Armin not ride with him, Mika, Annie, and Zofia to school today, but he came walking to school with Levi Ackerman. Not only did he come to school with Levi Ackerman, but he also came to school wearing his clothes as well. Eren could see the pristine gray button down and too-tight black jeans from where he stood near the school’s library (little did he know, when Levi had given Armin the change of clothes that morning, Levi insisted Armin keep them because they were way too big on him yet they ruthlessly chafed against Armin’s...you know).

Eventually, Erwin Smith arrived at school who delicately whisked Levi away from Armin with a graceful arm around his shoulder. Levi tucked into his side lovingly, and Armin just smiled at the two before waving and turning. Eren took this chance to walk up to Armin, who was shocked by Eren’s sudden appearance.

“Hey, Eren! Where’s Mikas-”

“Why were you with him yesterday?” Eren looked directly down at Armin, making the boy feel small under Eren’s penetrating gaze.

“I just slept over. We ended up having a lot in common and uh, I needed help on my APUSH homework,” Armin felt his cheeks going red as he made an attempt to lie. It was good enough though, since Eren let it go with a scoff. “Fine, so what, he's a good guy. You’re coming home with me today,” Eren made a quick 180 turn to walk off to his first period. Albeit, he would be 15 minutes early, but Mrs. Ral deserved some company this fine morning and Eren wasn’t sticking behind after his dramatic exit so Armin couldn’t say no.

As anticipated, by 6pm rolled around, Armin was at the Jaeger household. Eren had waited for Armin after practice, they walked home in silence, and now Eren was dragging Armin upstairs. Armin was at least grateful that he shot a quick text to Levi, who would graciously wash Armin’s clothes from the previous day and bring them to school tomorrow, bless his soul. But for now, Armin’s backpack was forcefully taken off by none other than straight-boy-Jaeger and he was promptly tossed on the bed, feeling arms snake around his waist and a cold nose pressing into his collarbone. He took the hint that Eren wanted to be the little spoon.

“Eren, I have homework and so do you, can’t we do this afterwards?”

“No. You’ve been acting weird ever since Miche’s party and this is only the 6th time you’ve let me cuddle you over the past like, what, two weeks? I get the first time getting drunk and partying is probably a bit overwhelming, but it's been a while and it’s time for you to stop moping, okay? I miss you,” Eren sighed and Armin couldn’t help but untie Eren’s bun and begin to run his hands through his hair, which was now reaching shoulder length. This didn’t stop Armin from glaring daggers the ceiling though, as Eren huffed softly and opted to lay on top of Armin’s chest rather than them both laying on their sides.

 _‘I can’t believe I genuinely have to do this. There is nothing about this that is remotely straight. No one craves cuddles from their best friend. Ok, maybe they do, but this is still the gayest thing to happen since gay came to gay town,’_ the blonde silently argued in his mind, and he subconsciously stopped stroking Eren’s hair during his inner monologue. A large, calloused hand pulled him out of his thoughts. Eren grabbed Armin’s hand in his own and continued the stroking motions, a silent ask to keep going. Armin did keep going because he knew it would probably be the last time as he drew a deep breath and just said it.

“I’m acting weird after Miche’s party because we made out in front of everyone.”

“Did I have socks on?”

“Excuse me?”

“You know the rules, it’s not gay if I had socks on. Did I have socks on?”

“What if I said no?”

He felt Eren’s eyes shoot open against his chest and he slowly brought his head up. His bottom lip quivered and he sniffed, “D-did I not…?”

In a hurry, Armin began to nervously word-vomit because things certainly weren't going as Levi and him had planned, “What? I mean, yes you did, but that’s not the difference, Eren. I’m still a guy. An article of clothing doesn’t immediately exclude the actions that happened.” Armin sat up, curling his knees and wrapping his arms around them. Eren got up to face him, chuckling, “Yes it does! If I know I’m straight, it’s not a big deal, right? You said so. Now stop acting weird and fucking cuddle me. I had a tough 4th period and I really would like to just hug you right now.”

-

Obviously, the next day, all of this information got relayed to Levi at a nearby coffee shop once Levi got off from volunteering. This came with the addition of Erwin and Hanji, too, who sat there looking just as shell-shocked as Levi two days prior.

“So now he’s just being gay and saying it’s not gay because he says so _and_ he had socks on?”

Armin nearly broke down in tears. This was killing him for reasons unknown.

Hanji wrapped a consoling arm around Armin’s shoulders while Levi and Erwin took each of his hands, rubbing them with comfort.

“Guys, I can’t do this anymore. He’s gay. Gay as fucking shit,” all three gasped since it was their first time hearing Armin say such language, but they let him continue, “and it’s pretty clear he has a crush on me. He’s my best friend, of course, and I love him so much. But, he keeps denying his sexuality and thinks it excuses the possessive and clingy boyfriend nature of his actions lately. I love Eren, truly, but I like Marco romantically and his unknowing advances are making me uncomfortable," he drew a deep breath to collect himself, running a nervous hand through his undercut.

"When we stopped fighting after the summer, sure we were touchy and stuff, but I just wanted our old friendship back. The way he's starting to act now is exceeding those limits by a landslide. And not only did I make a drunken mistake with my best friend, but I also kind of cheated on Marco even though we’re technically on break. I don’t even know what to do,” he cried silently at the table, hoping not to distract too many customers.

“Alright boys, I suppose it’s time to kick Eren’s ass in gay-gear and get him off your back, huh?” Armin nodded.

“Okay, Operation Gay-ger is now in session!” Hanji clapped at their statement. Armin continued to cry. Levi ordered more tea. Erwin was still shocked. Eren was still gay, but now he was going to realize it now sooner than later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love levi and armin being besties. idk just felt right :c


	8. Upperclassmen Know Best

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah i dont really like this chapter :( it's an extreme filler on the lowkey and i hate filler chapterrsss butt i needed this chapter to provide some info & it ends awkwardly but it HAD TO BE DONE so here it is and next chapter will be better i promise

_“ERREENN!”_ Hanji’s familiar screech bellowed towards where the boy was sitting. He glanced up confused, since it was about an hour too early for the marine biology club to be let out.

 _“WHATT?”_ he yelled back from the signature bench he waited on.

They waved for Eren to re-enter the building and he complied, promptly being led to the chemistry classroom they used. Coincidentally, it was Mr. Shadis’. They were all crowded near a lab table, and it looked like the club activities consisted of talking and finishing up homework for that day, not that Eren was disappointed. He didn’t really want to see what the club _actually_ got up to, because he didn’t really want to get “participated in illegal/gang activity” put on his record in case they got caught.

He slid into the free stool next to Armin, saying hi to the rest of the club’s members.

Hanji closed the classroom door and bounded back over to the table, standing next to Moblit and slapping their hands against the table, making everyone except Levi jump.

“Eren, we’re glad you can be here, comrade! We are planning our first club activity!” The screech they released was more than ear piercing, and poor Moblit was right next to all that action. Miche politely covered Nanaba’s ears and Erwin, well, Erwin was just there. He had tuned out long ago, probably thinking about huge, scary monkeys that throw rocks or something.

“We are going to,” they stopped and Moblit sighed, tapping a weak drumroll against the lab table, “HELP PICK UP TRASH AT THE BEACH! And you, Eren Jaeger, are going to help!” Hanji pointed an incredulous finger at Eren, which signalled Moblit to dig in his backpack boredly, pulling out a crumpled up party horn and giving a weak blow, an unceremonious honk filling the empty classroom.

“Hanj, as much as I want to help you guys out and save the turtles and I really do, poor little bastards, why the hell would we do instead of like...visiting an aquarium? And I have practice until 3 everyday,” Eren sighed.

“Because uh...that’s our next club activity? And it’ll be in the evening, so it’ll count as club activities and extra volunteer hours...?” Eren couldn’t tell if it was a question or an answer and it was easy to catch on the way Hanji’s voice went up at the end of every sentence, but hey, it was a response so he just shrugged his shoulders and laid his head against Armin’s shoulder.

“I still don’t understand why I have to come, though. Isn’t this your guys’ club?”

“I-”

“Yeah, but Squirt over here said he’d really love to have you there,” Levi cut off Hanji before they got caught up in their own web of lies, slapping a rough hand down on Armin’s unoccupied shoulder which caused the blonde’s eyes to go wide.

Eren’s head whipped up and he let his chin balance on Armin’s shoulder, looking up at Armin. Armin, slowly turning his head with the same wide-eyed fear, gave Eren a forced smile and trying to give more distance between their faces than two inches.

Eren, on the other hand, was half-lidded with a lazy, blissed out smile stretching across his face at the notion that Armin wanted him to come along. Oh man, did he love hanging out with Armin lately. He couldn’t help the way his heart beat rapidly at every recent mention of the boy, or how he took the chance to touch him or cuddle him any chance he got. And oh, the way Eren loved to run his hands through Armin’s hair and down his neck, feeling the bristles of his undercut. 

He just loved his best friend so much! And sometimes, Eren thought to himself, _‘I wonder what being actually in love with a girl will feel like. I’m obviously not gay and am obviously not in love with Armin, so if platonic love feels this good, what will real romantic love feel like?’_

Armin looked behind Eren, where he could see Miche and Nanaba sitting at the end of the lab table. Nanaba was giving an apologetic smile, as everyone in the room could see the bedroom eyes that Eren was currently making at Armin. Miche just gave him a look that read, _‘Stop smiling. You look like Chucky.’_

Not that Miche was wrong, though. Armin could feel his left eye starting to twitch.

“Okay, if Armin wants me to go, I will go,” Eren resumed his head’s previous position on Armin’s shoulder, even choosing to close his eyes and rub his cheek against it a few times, humming quietly with content. 

“Eren, can you go wait for me outside while we pack up?” Armin nudged his shoulder a few times, making Eren lift his head. He just nodded and left, closing the door but stopping right outside it and waiting for the rest of the club members to come out.

Once Eren was out of the class, Armin slouched over and rubbed his temples. Everyone let out a collective sigh, which got Erwin out of his daydreaming trance and back to reality. Oop, there goes gravity. Mom’s spaghetti?

“So, it’s pretty damn obvious the kid has a touching kink,” Levi huffed, shoving his abandoned textbook back into his backpack while Hanji and Moblit cleaned off the lab table.

“You mean his love language is probably physical touch?” Nanaba suggested, shrugging her backpack on.

“Whatever it is- do you guys understand now?” the distressed sound came from Armin as he got up and scoot his stool back under the lab table.

“Yeah, that’s really awkward for you, Squirt. Erwin? C’mon, time to go home, _mon chéri ‘my dear’,_ ” Erwin somehow was back in his daydreaming state and was once again snapped out by Levi lightly tugging his hand. The taller, more mature blonde shook his head a little bit before blinking, “Sorry, Armin, I’m just tired today. I am really worried about the whole Eren thing, though,” he supplied meekly, getting up and holding Levi’s hand loosely.

“It’s okay, you guys have no idea how much it means for me for you guys to be helping. I don’t even know what our friends would do about this, but thank you guys for being there for me even though you’ve only known me for a short while.”

“That’s what your upperclassmen are for, Arry! Now, respect your elders! Drop and give me 20!” Leave it to Hanji to always lighten the mood. They slapped a huge, slobbery kiss on Armin’s cheek and gave them a crushing side hug before the group exited the classroom where Eren stood waiting. Hanji quickly let their arm fall, catching Eren eyeing up the friendly touch with hostility. 

“So boys, today’s Wednesday. How’s about Friday at 6? We all meet up, grab some pizza, and go save some turtles?” Hanji beamed to clear up the silence. Both boys nodded and the rest of the group agreed, Levi offering to drive both boys to the beach.

“How fun will that be, huh?” Eren smiled at Armin on their route home.

 _‘Oh how fun it will be,’_ Armin mused to himself, knowing that his plan was just beginning to fall into place.

-

As promised, Levi picked them up and was able to get himself, Erwin, Armin, and Eren to the chosen pizza place at 6:00 sharp, but then again Armin had expected nothing less. Luckily, dinner went by without a hitch (minus the one time Levi slapped Eren for talking with his mouth full). With full stomachs, huge asses, and full hearts, they made their way to the coast line. Hanji took out their cell phone, snapping pictures of the group working together as the sun began to set. Some lone surfers were still out of the waves, trying to get in what they could before the moon made its temporary residence in the nice sky.

Eren nearly dropped his trash picker when he felt a familiar nose press into his armpit and a laugh mildly contagious.

“Ereeennnnn, I wonder what you smell like with no deodorant on~” Hanji singsonged, before pulling away and helping Eren pick up trash around his area. Oddly comforted by the recurring compliment (was it a compliment?), he just chuckled and thanked them for the help.

“I think surfing is pretty gosh darn amazing, huh Eren?” Hanji perked up randomly, tossing some plastic into their garbage bag.

“I mean I guess. I don’t think I could ever do it, I’m too clumsy,” he chuckled and Hanji whole-heartedly agreed, both of them falling into giggles as they added onto reasons why they could never surf. Armin turned his head at the commotion, distracting him from his previous conversation with Erwin. He turned his head back to the elder blonde, a hint of a mischievous grin ghosting across his face, “It’s happening.”

After their small talk about surfing, Hanji carried most of the conversation, varying between the ocean and the people currently at the beach.

“Yeah, if I knew you could get abs like those from surfing, I would’ve been doing it out of the womb!” The mad-scientist chuckled, motioning a thumb to the group of men walking off the beach with surfboards under their arms and washboard abs that no human could miss.

“-I mean I could just lick those things individually!”

He shot his head up, frowning.

“What? I mean, their abs are nice, but I don’t like men like that,” the brunette shook his head, continuing to pick up trash.

Although Eren couldn’t see it, Hanji’s glasses glinted with something combined with the sunset and pure evil and their smirk widened.

“...I never asked you if you thought he was cute, Eren. I just said he had nice abs,” they gave a knowing chuckle when Eren froze, “Not that it would be a problem or anything, obviously. I mean, look around,” Slowly turning his head up, he followed directions to the rhetorical statement. Erwin playfully threw trash at Levi, who then dropped his trash picker and lunged at Erwin full force. Armin doubled over in laughter while the 5’2” man managed to take down his boyfriend who towered nearly a foot over him, and Moblit not-so-discreetly ogled at Hanji.

“Y’know, it’s not a bad thing,” the scientist kept supplying food for Eren’s thoughts as they noticed his eyes glaze over. The gears in Eren’s head were noticeably turning for only a split second before he went back to picking up trash.

“Obviously it’s not a bad thing, Hanji. I’m not stupid,” the cold, distant tone took the senior by shock but fueled their motivation.

“Would it be bad if you were?”

“What are you, my therapist?” Finally, Eren’s smarts were beginning to show themselves through witty comebacks.

“Perhaps eventually your psychologist once I get an acceptance letter back,” even through the meant-to-be-serious conversation, Hanji continued their jests and pokes of fun, “but you never answered my question.

 _‘Yes,’_ “No,” the statement was firm, “if I was gay, there would be no use in hiding it. But I’m not, so there. I don’t know what you’re trying to prove right now, but I’m going to go pick up more trash. Moblit’s staring at your ass again, so you should go put your boyfriend in check,” the teen grumbled before stalking off near the shoreline, distancing himself from the group. With a sad smile gracing their face, they saw Eren’ noticeably tying and retying his bun a few times before letting a shake run through his body and then the boy continued to pick up his trash. Letting it finally drop, Hanji whipped around, new mood gracing their entire presence as they spotted Moblit (who was definitely staring at their ass) and they not-so-gracefully bounded up to their partner, throwing their hands around their neck and joining in with a conservation between Miche and Erwin. The time would come soon, Hanji reasoned internally, but it was better to keep it at a push than a shove.

-

“I could tell it got his wheels turning, but he’s still pretty adamant on it,” Hanji would reveal to the group that following monday as they wrote down the schedule for the new month of October, “and by the way, the little squid stunt I pulled a few weeks ago almost got our club terminated so instead I’ve signed us up to teach an after-school marine biology class at Stohess Elementary, sorry guys,” a collective groan sounded at the mention of having to teach snotty-nosed kids, but then again, it was better than Hanji trying to reanimate a preserved squid corpse ‘in the name of science’.

“Well, that really doesn’t change the fact that Eren is still clueless and probably forever will be,” Miche grunted while writing in some new dates for the club on the calendar.

“Well, Miche, if I knew my little pep talk would’ve ended as a streaming bowl of shit on fire, then I wouldn’t have done it but hey look where we are now! _DON’T YOU THINK I REALIZE THAT!”_ The scientist pulled at their hair in frustration while Miche just chuckled in return. 

“It’s fine, Hanj, but whatever you did must’ve worked because now Eren keeps getting mad at me for little things,” Armin sighed, beginning to pack up his things.

“Like what?” sounded Erwin.

“Well, Eren gets mad easily, but this is different from how he’s been acting the past few weeks obviously,” He began to explain. The previous day, he told them, he had gone to help Eren study for his upcoming pre-calc test. Eren being Eren didn’t want to do homework immediately, but after an hour Armin finally put his foot down to start studying. The two got into a quarrel, Eren wanting to continue putting it off and getting unnecessarily mad before Armin began to pack his things and threaten to leave him to study on his own. This triggered something in Eren, who shot across the room and hugged Armin, profusely apologizing and begging him to stay.

“When I started to teach him, he looked like a little lost puppy, and then we were completely back at square one,” slinging his backpack across his shoulders, he got up from the lab table stool and began to help pack away the monthly-calendar decorating supplies.

“And you’re still gonna go home with him tonight?” questioned Nanaba.

“Yes, because I love my best friend-”

“-who’s romantically in love with you. Honestly, Squirt, this is getting dragged on for ridiculously long, and frankly it’s getting boring and irritating to watch rather than fun now. I think you need to just be straight with him and just tell him how it is. Tiptoeing around the fact isn’t going to help much, because although not academically, the guy is a complete idiot,” Levi took a grumpy sip from his tea. The rest of the seniors agreed, nearly wanting to make Armin crawl into a hole. That completely defeated his amazingly well-thought out plan that he was planning to execute until they graduated.

“Avoiding confrontation with some long ass plan is boring and time consuming, Arlert. It’s pretty pathetic to not be able to be completely honest with your childhood best friend,” And now, suddenly Levi can read minds and know exactly what to say. Great, just what Armin needed.

They all exited the school building and Eren shot them all a wave before getting up and walking over.

“You need to do this soon, Arlert, or else it won’t happen. Don’t be a fucking pansy,” was the thing Levi whispered in his ear before he walked off with Erwin’s hand held tightly in his. 

“I hate to agree with Lev on this, but he’s right. Stop tiptoeing around it. If you want this dragged out, elaborate plan, you probably just _want_ Eren to keep pining over you. End his suffering if it bothers you that much,” Hanji murmured immediately afterwards, and the four other group members began walking in the opposite direction to their homes. Eventually, it was just him and Eren, all alone and ready to walk home.

Ugh, Armin hated how many fights they were getting into lately. Nothing has really felt the same since that damn chemistry project, and if this went down the way Armin anticipated, they never will. But, you know what they say, upperclassmen know best. 


	9. Willy the Halloween-Frenzy Employee and Eren, Who Liked People

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello everyone!! thank you for the love on the last chapter! i'm trying to reply to more people now (i'm still trying to figure out ao3 as a creator and not a reader LMFAO) so eee i love talking with all of you it really makes my day :) also did yall see the new aot episode-- BYE im done armin i just <333333333 okay simp time over now onto the next chapter :DD

“Eren, can you sit down please? It’s nothing bad, I just really want to talk to you,” Eren stopped his pacing. It was another Carla/Mikasa day out, and of course Grisha still came home late in the evening. Great, because everyone and their mother knew how well this situation went the last time it had the opportunity to present itself.

Reluctantly, Eren sat down at the foot of the bed, fancily putting “criss-cross-apple-sauce” on display. Armin sat at the headboard on the opposite side and Eren couldn’t help but notice that Armin had continued his trek in trendy clothing as he observed yet another sweater with a white button up underneath. He always forgot to thank Zofia, but maybe if he got another chance to, he would.

“Eren, I don’t know how to put this lightly honestly. I’m trying to be as nice as possible but you really need to know this,” Armin started with a big breath, trying to inhale the courage he needed to do this. Spoiler alert, it didn’t work. He could actively feel his fingertips tingling and going numb, so he just opted to shut his eyes as hard as he could until he could see little stars in the darkness. Curling in his fist tightly, he finally just said it:

“You’re gay.”

It was the longest 10 second silence that Armin had ever experienced in his life. If you told him that time had even genuinely frozen, despite all his knowledge, he would most likely believe you because holy _hell_ was this awkward.

When Armin was 7, he owned a pet goldfish. Goldie was a beloved member of the Arlert household, and periodically would check in to watch the fish just swim and do its thing. Therefore, it made the boy pretty experienced enough to say with complete confidence that Eren looked _exactly_ like Goldie right now. Y’know when a goldfish opens its mouth mindlessly and the little air bubble comes out, well that was Eren right now except you couldn’t hear the little ‘bloop’ noise when he opened his mouth. Open, close, open, close, and no matter how many times Eren did it there was no air bubble. Armin was disappointed.

“I mean, no, but alright?” The boy awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling at a poor attempt to clear the air. If he could, Armin would’ve pulled up a powerpoint if he had one on hand. It would’ve been filled beautifully with no transitions, a good color palette, easy-to-follow along text, and **multiple reasons pointing to why Eren is gayer than Frankie Grande.**

“Listen Eren, I really do mean this in the nicest way possible, but yes you are,” Armin pushed on, “a piece of fabric does not excuse the actions you do. You _kissed_ me, Eren, and you _liked it_ . We made out and you _liked_ it!” Eren’s face slowly contorted into anger and he balled up his fists next to his side.

“Well, in case you haven’t noticed, _Armin_ , it takes two to tango. Does that mean you liked it too, huh? You’re the one who apparently wanted to kiss me first! Do you have some weird crush on me?” He yelled, his hands fraying out and making obscure motions to act out the conversation.

“ **_What?!_ ** No! Of course not, it was just a drunken mistake!”

“Then why can’t _I_ say that it was a drunken mistake?”

“ _EREN WATCHING GAY PORN AND GETTING OFF TO IT ISN’T A DRUNKEN MISTAKE, ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU’RE SOBER!_ ” Armin cried, voice going up a few octaves and even cracking at one point, “You keep being touchy and possessive with me like you’re my boyfriend, you don’t like it when anyone else is around me, all you want to do is cuddle me and keep me to yourself! If that’s not gay, Eren, then it’s weird, because I like Marco, not you,” He tried to keep his voice level but he should’ve known that it wouldn’t prevail against Eren’s temper.

At this point, Armin was cowering back on the bed and Eren was pacing around the room, hands behind his head. He whipped around, pointing an accusing finger at Armin, “You say you like Marco, but you still kissed me! Cuddled me! Did everything! Why do you think it’s your place to tell me what I am or what I am not?”

“Eren, I don’t want to force you out of the closet, but you’re so deep in denial that you can’t see that what you’re doing is what I find inherently romantic and sexual and you won’t stop because you are convincing yourself that it’s not either of those things! _Why won’t you admit it? What is so bad about being gay?”_ Armin’s eyes were sealed shut at this point and he just let his thoughts run wild as he spewed them out from his mouth.

“There’s nothing bad about being gay!” Eren screamed, pulling at his hair and eventually making the bun come loose and fall out. His hair graced his shoulders, astray from all of the ruthless, stressed clutches.

“Then why is it bad when _you’re_ gay? What is so bad about being who you are?” Armin knew that this was the final straw, so he prepared himself for the worst. Eren creeped over to the bed, putting his hands down and leaning in close as if he were making an attempt to intimidate Armin during an interrogation. Eren cocked his head to the side, and from this close, Armin could see his angry, flushed cheeks and tears that were making their way to his eyes.

“Why do you feel like it is your place to tell me who I am and who I am not?” The quiet volume of Eren’s voice shocked his best friend, who was leaning in closer in order to hear him. The eye contact they held made Armin want to look away but he couldn’t bring himself to. “Why can’t I just be Eren? Why all the labels? Why can’t you just trust what I say?” He muttered.

“You need to at least admit to yourself that maybe you’re attracted to other genders _besides_ girls, Eren. I didn’t do this to upset you or force you to come out to the world, but your ignorance to your sexuality has led to you excusing inappropriate behaviors between us that I can’t stand anymore. You want a more touchy relationship? Fine by me, but I want you to start asking first because the way you’ve been treating me lately, cuddling, wanting me all to yourself, getting jealous of other people when I’m around them? It’s been crossing the line between friendship and romantic interest,” Armin’s voice level matched Eren’s, and took a deep breath for confidence (it still didn’t work), “Eren, I love you no matter how you come. Gay, questioning, straight, mentally ill, picture perfect. You’re Eren in the end, and that’s what I care about. I just don’t understand why you’re so adamant on hiding this from yourself? From admitting that your attraction goes beyond girls? I’m sorry, but you watch gay porn and now you can’t even get off to straight porn. What else am I supposed to deduce from that?” Armin was begging Eren for an answer at this point. He just wanted this to be over and done with, for Eren to finally admit it so they can go back to being the way they used to be, all the way back in eighth grade.

“You could never understand, Armin, how big of an inconvenience it is. Doing everything possible to convince myself that what I was doing was relatively straight, every glance I spared towards another guy made me anxious, not even strangers could know. I don’t care, but for me it’s different. I’ve already caused enough trouble for my family when I was younger, and now I’m past that. But next thing you know, not only was I the troublemaker kid with the anger issues, but now I’m the gay one, too. Save for Mikasa, but she’s been the perfect child ever since she was born. I could never be who she is, and I just...don’t want them to be mad with me,” Eren fell to his knees, elbows still balanced on the bed as he cried into his hands. Stunned at the confession, Armin propped himself up in order to lean over and carefully drag Eren back onto the bed by his forearms. Still crying, the other boy obliged, sitting in front of Armin with his shoulders slumped but still shaking as every individual sob shot through his body.

Carefully, as if the brunette was glass, Armin brought his hand around the back of Eren’s head and pulled his head down against his shoulder. Wrapping his other arm around his torso, they stayed like that and Armin would’ve laughed at the familiar situation they had been put in nearly two months ago, but now the roles were reversed. As Eren cried, Armin made his final speech.

“Eren, I’m sorry. I should’ve never tried to put any labels on you, or force you to admit things you didn’t want to. It was the only way I felt I could make you realize how I’m seeing things. Whoever you’re attracted to doesn’t affect what your family will think about you; Carla will still bake whatever comes to mind, Mikasa and you will bicker, and you and your dad will still compete in games. You’re still Eren, and they know that. It’s who you always have been. Remember when I came out to you guys and your parents?” He felt a nog against his shoulder, “They were so proud of me. They still love me, and they will still love you. Eren, you don’t even have to tell them anything. Like you said, just be Eren. But, I need you to stop doing things like you’re my boyfriend. You didn’t even notice it because you thought it what was friends do, and we can still cuddle, hang out, and I don’t really care how you feel towards me regardless. I still want to be your best friend, but now that we’ve had this talk, I need you to be more aware of how you act, okay?” Another nod, “Okay, good. So we’re good?”

Eren pulled away softly. His hair was in disarray but still managed to shape his becoming face, outlining his jaw structure and punctuating his aqua eyes, which were red and puffy. Armin’s hand slowly dropped from the back of his head and the blonde made a weak attempt to smile, which made Eren’s frown slightly turn upwards.

“No one gets to know but us, okay? I'll tell Mikasa later, but just us for now, ok?” he said quietly, holding out his pinky.

Without hesitation, Armin wrapped his own pinky around Eren’s and sealed the deal. Eren was just Eren, and while the talk was important and necessary, it was Eren’s thing to do whenever or if he decided to add labels to who he was.

“I honestly uh...don’t like you like that, but I was getting possessive because we didn’t spend time together over the summer. I didn’t want to, like, forget about me,” The brunette hung his head in shame.

“I forgive you, just lessen up a bit, ok? I could never forget you, ever. Don’t even think about it, because you know what? We’re still best friends okay? It was just a project and I’m glad it spurred you to do some growing up over the summer. It was necessary to take a small break,” Armin chuckled lightly.

“Can I... can I cuddle you? Is that ok?”

“Yes, Eren, it’s ok.”

“Can I be the little spoon again?"

“...Fine.”

-

The shift in dynamic wasn’t unnoticed by their group of friends whenever break and lunch rolled around. It was no secret how now, Armin wouldn’t freeze up if Eren put an arm around his shoulder or made light jabs. Eren wouldn’t stare down Marco or Hanji if they hugged Armin in front of him, and most of all, Eren felt more free than he had his entire life. Getting over it was hard, and after Armin left that day, he did some hard researching about himself.

Internalized homophobia was a long, weird word that was now a huge part of Eren’s life. He found many people just like him on ask-sites, telling other people about their experiences and for once, he felt calm that he wasn’t the only one who felt like this. Some had to go to therapy, others just put up two middle fingers to the mirror, and Eren? Well, Eren was still working on it. Sometimes, if he accidentally looked at someone, he would quickly move away. If his teammates joked about sizes in the locker room, Eren stayed out of it because he didn’t want to say anything that might expose him. On bad days, he would go to sleep crying and wake up a few hours later from a nightmare in which he got kicked out, and every irrational thought flooded his mind until he would pass out from exhaustion. But, with all the bad comes good, and Eren still had his good days, too. On a good day, maybe he complimented a guy in his english class (last time, it was a guy named Thomas and Eren pointed out that he liked his Shakespeare analysis). Sometimes, he would even let his gaze linger on a guy that he found cute when he went to the mall with Mikasa. 

Right now, he was costume-shopping with Mikasa and Armin. It had been around 3 weeks since his talk with Armin, and that Saturday was going to be Jean’s annual halloween party. Therefore, that Monday, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin went as a trio to the mall in order to pick out their perfect trio costumes that they always attended in.

“Oh come on, guys, we should obviously go for Woody, Buzz, and Jesse! It just makes sense and is the perfect decision!” Eren grumbled, angrily munching down on a fry. The food court was fairly full for a Monday after school, but it didn’t bother the three teens as they scarfed down their fast food.

“Eren, that idea is so shit. Like, god awful. The costumes are so ugly,” Mikasa rolled her eyes.

Armin hummed in agreement, covering his mouth with one hand while the other reached for his drink, “I agree wif Mikatha,” he started before swallowing and taking a sip of his soda, “I spent a lot of time in the closet, so I know a thing or two about what looks good and what doesn’t-” Eren threw up his hands dramatically in defeat, huffing out a quick ‘ _whatever, I hate you both’_ and attracting the attention of a few tables near them before Armin continued, “anyways, I still think we should go as the three kids from Nightmare Before Christmas, and I want to be the red one because I’m gonna try a new blood ritual tonight!” The blonde gushed, looking between both of his best friends with an encouraging smile but was met with two identical Jaeger frowns.

“Armin...that’s fucked up,” Eren stared.

“Yeah dude, didn’t Jean ban you from doing rituals at his house anyways?” Mikasa joined in, finishing off her drink.

“Only the voodoo doll ones,” Armin muttered angrily under his breath, letting out a few small curses under his breath before picking up the group’s trash and throwing it away. When he returned, they all stood up and began making their way to the pop-up halloween shop that always occupied an empty store around the fall-time of year.

“Doesn’t matter- not happening. We should be-” The argument from the food court continued as they entered the store and while Mikasa was rambling on why they should all be Alvin and the Chipmunks, Armin noticed Eren staring across the store. Following his eyes, he saw a crisp looking guy around their age with shoulder-length blonde hair and a nice, inviting smile. The man, an employee from seeing the working apron uniform he wore, was talking with people who seemed to be customers and through Eren’s facial expressions, he could see that Eren wanted to really talk to him.

Eren’s phone beeped in his pocket, whisking him away from his trance. He pulled it out indiscreetly to check the new message:

**From Armeen: Go talk to him, I can cover for you.**

With a gentle smile, Eren texted back. Armin checked the message notification on his phone indiscreetly.

**From Eren Jaeger: I told Mika last week so only you two know, I think she would understand.**

With a breath of courage, Eren coughed abruptly, making Mikasa drop the conversation topic, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m uh,” Eren started.

 _‘It’s ok. You’re ok. There’s nothing wrong with you thinking that a guy is attractive. Your friends will still love you if you think a guy is cute,’_ the light self-reassurance was all Eren need to finish his sentence, “I’m gonna go talk to that guy!”

Mikasa looked over, trying to find said “guy” but to no avail, yet turned back to her brother with a proud, warm smile, “Okay! We’ll be watching to make sure you don’t get kidnapped. Go get em’, tiger!” She cheered on, clapping her hands together lightly. Eren smiled back and looked at Armin, who gave him an encouraging thumbs-up, and he was on his way.

“I’m so proud of him,” Mikasa started as they both watched Eren walk boldly across the store and to the employee, who’s customers just left, “I’m glad you lit the fire under his ass. He has some tough days but I’ve never seen him so.. _free_. Like when we were all younger, you know?”

Armin turned to Mikasa, smiling, “I know exactly what you mean,” and they both joined arms, going to continue to look around the store in search of the perfect costume.

“Hi, welcome to Halloween-Frenzy, my name is Willy, how can I help you?” The man, Willy, had a sultry, deep voice that did something to Eren’s mind. 

“Hi, I’m uh, Eren, and like- me and my friends are uh, looking for, uh, costumes?”

 _‘No, I’m looking for fucking Narnia. OF COURSE YOU’RE LOOKING FOR COSTUMES, IDIOT, IT’S A HALLOWEEN STORE!’_ Eren yelled in his head while nervously chuckling and rubbing a hand behind his neck, “Uh, I mean, we want kind of a trio costume? So do you guys carry that in a specific section...by any chance?”

“Sure thing, Eren!” Willy laughed and began to lead Eren to a corner in the store.

He just said Eren’s name, oh fuck. If Eren didn’t die by getting eaten alive or something, he might die from that.

“So, here are our trio costume selections,” The male made a motion towards the wall in front of them, “we have family selections, friends, any specific thing you were going for?"

Oh god, he was talking to Eren. Eren should probably reply.

“Um, it’s for me, my best friend, and my sister. So…”

“Oh, great! I personally would opt for Woody, Buzz, and Jesse, then! Really cool costumes and they’re pretty cheap in comparison to the more popular costumes for this year, so you get a lot of bang for your buck!” Willy smiled and Eren returned it, laughing.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking! I told them that, but they said the costumes are ugly.”

“What? Well, as a clearly professional halloween-er,” Willy gestured to his work uniform, “I’m pretty qualified to say that it’s easily the best choice.” They both laughed again. 

“Thank you for your help, uh, Willy,” Eren offered, looking over the wall of trio costumes to try and maintain the blush that began to spread across his cheeks.

“No problem, anything else I can help you with today?”

“Um, one more thing, actually,” Eren turned back to him, looking at the ground before meeting Willy’s eyes again.

_‘Here it is, Eren. Full count, winning run on third base. Hit that ball right back up the middle and take this home,’_

“I did genuinely need help, but also I uh, saw you from across the store and I honestly thought you were really,” _It’s okay. People are like other people. You just like people who are your same people. This is okay to do,_ “cute.” Eren finished, shoving his hands into the pockets of his gray zip up jacket that was currently unzipped, exposing the fitted, dark green long-sleeve he wore underneath. He actually quite liked this outfit and was glad that the other man, Willy, had caught him on a good hair day as well as a good outfit day.

“I don’t know if you even uh, you know, like guys, but I figured maybe I could shoot my shot?” When Eren looked back up, Willy was smiling gently and had red splotches gracing the pale skin on his cheeks.

“Oh god, you are literally so cute. Like adorable, even. Honestly, I swing both ways, but unfortunately I have been in a relationship for about 8 months now. If I wasn’t, you’d definitely have a chance, though!” He offered, chuckling and wiping his face, now trying to get his own blush to go away.

“Thank you, though. You’re pretty cute yourself,” he winked and even though he was being rejected, a warm feeling still swelled in his chest.

“That’s fine! Thanks for the help and everything though, I’m gonna go convince my friends about the costume now,” Eren jabbed his thumb backwards in a gesture and Willy waved him off with a delightful smile as Eren turned on his heel and made his way back to his friends, of which he found in the accessory aisle and Armin was criticizing the Oujia board that was on sale.

“This is so poorly made, the only spirits you could probably contact is the type that’s alcohol. Literally, not authentic at all and frankly, disappointing,” He heard Armin’s rants as he came up behind them. 

“I’m back!” He sang, and the two whipped around, still conjoined by the arms. 

“How did it go?!”

“What did he say?!”

“First of all,” he put up a finger to indicate silence, “I asked him where the trio costumes were and not only did he show me, but he also said that the Toy Story costumes were the best option because they were on sale due to lack in popularity, so we are dressing as that because it’s cheap and we will be original.” Identical groans sounded from both his older sister and his best friend, who were rolling their eyes and grumbling but in the end, Eren flashed them his _damn signature smile that always indicated that Eren was going to get his way._

“Second off, he’s taken or something but still said I was cute so score,” he cheered, which caused Armin and Mikasa to cheer, which caused the two families in their vicinity to turn away from the Halloween products being sold and glare at them before returning to their shopping.

As the trio walked away from the store, bags of Toy Story costumes in hand, Eren felt victorious. He _actually_ tried to ask someone out. He asked out a _guy._ And the best part? He couldn’t care. His head was held high even as they all piled into Mikasa’s car for the drive back to the Jaeger household. He has asked out someone and even though he got rejected, he felt on top of the world.

Eren Jaeger asked out a guy, got rejected, and felt no guilt, remorse, sorrow. All he felt was free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bisexual willy tybur supremacy??? i think yes. also yay, eren is finally out of denial but just wont use labels and yay for eren because he is growing up so fast :') halloween party next chapter YAY we get to see more of the 104th cadet corp and YMIR AND HISTORIA FINALLY OMFG IM SORRY FOR THE WAIT HAHAH see yall next chapt!! <3


	10. What Happened At Jean's, Stays At Jean's

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey yall! the setting for this chapt is in Jean's house and i figured i could show yall the setting inspo to help imagine or smth so here :)
> 
> the kitchen - https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/f3YishXkniabrpIcD0eaaRCmlknlT8_liPHAfcWi83CL5zxjyRc1-Fci3ToRz8ukNCcfggBeJN1KoY6W4-0plp-b=s900-l85
> 
> the living room - https://jhalvorson.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/dsc_0146.jpg
> 
> okay!! onto the chapter 10 <3

“I’m literally chafing so bad,” Mikasa whined, adjusting her cowgirl hat and chaps. Eren, on the other hand, could care less because he was on a mission. Leaving behind an uncomfortable Mikasa and a grumpy Armin who held all three of the trio’s nightbags, Eren darted into the Kirstein household in search of his pitcher, preparing to make possibly the best joke of his life.

“Hey, Eren!” Falco called to him as soon as he entered through the door, sitting in the living room area with the other three kids.

“Hey, Falco! Hey- do you know where Jean is by any chance?” Falco shook his head in response.

“Oh, yeah! Him and Marco went to the kitchen, I think!” piped up Gabi, and Eren threw up two thumbs-up in appreciation before heading straight to the kitchen where the rest of his friends resided. Ignoring everyone’s greetings to him, he stood across the kitchen near the wall, directly aligned beside Jean, who was leaning into the fridge looking for a few drinks.

“Hey, Bullseye!” Eren whooped, finally catching the boy’s attention.

Jean slowly turned, his face contorted into a mixture of fear and anger as he took in Eren’s Woody costume. Oh fuck yes, this was the perfect joke, Eren had deducted.

“What the fuck, Jaeger."

“Oh, so you did respond,” Eren chuckled, tipping his cowboy hat, “I’m glad my horse knows how to reply to it’s rightful owner.”

“You motherfucker…” Jean realized the set up. It was his own fault for even daring to turn around, and now he was caught up in some bad Toy Story reference.

“Reach for the sky, Kirstein, or do you wanna try to get the snake in my boot?” Eren suggestively grabbed at his crotch, smirking at the dumbstruck Jean. Connie and Sasha, across the island, were doubled over in laughter. Connie, slapping the countertop as tears spilled over the brims of his eyes and Sasha, wheezing now that no sound could come out. Reiner made an attempt to stifle his laugh by putting his red solo cup while Bertholdt completely spit his drink back into his, coughing up a lung trying to catch his breath. Annie, who stood next to them, just watched the scene intently. Marco, who was next to Jean, looked horrified and Eren didn’t even realize that Marco’s sister, Ymir, and her girlfriend Historia were also here. Ymir was cackling and Historia just looked confused, but a small smile played on her face. Armin and Mikasa had now just entered the kitchen, but Jean had already sprung up from his crouch and lunged across the room at Eren. Both fell to the tile, wrestling each other, and everyone began to cheer them on for a few minutes.

“Should we let them keep going?” Armin offered to Mikasa, who just watched with a smile on her face. He turned to her, and Mikasa just looked at them with a glazed look of sisterly affection and a small smile before replying, “I think it’s fine.”

Both boys were visibly running out of stamina, and everyone just overlooked their little brawl with happiness, making no moves to interrupt the fight.

 _‘Why...why aren’t they stopping us?’_ Both Jean and Eren thought, muscles aching as they continued to weakly wrestle and throw aimless punches. That was until a short savior was kicking them both in the stomach.

“Stop fighting, assholes, we have booze,” Eren looked up weakly to Levi, who was dressed as a vampire and Miche, dressed as a firefighter, was standing behind him with a twelve-pack of cheap beer in each hand. Hanji and Moblit, who held a karaoke machine by the looks of it, were dressed as Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster. Erwin and Nanaba stood together, Erwin as a werewolf to rival Levi and Nanaba as a cat. The other teens cheered and began to greet the upperclassmen, introducing themselves immediately to the new friends.

“Oh, you guys are here! Okay guys, so this is…” Eren was glad that Jean let Armin invite the club to their Halloween party and as Armin introduced everyone, they seemed to all get along well. Out of the corner of his eye as he struggled to get up from the floor, he could see Miche catching a few discreet sniffs of everyone and slowly nodding his head after each one. The rest of the lowerclassmen were just happy that they now had beer and no worries, since Jean’s parents always went away for Halloween weekend for Jean’s dad’s company party in the next town over.

 _‘You can have some friends over, Jean-boy, but be safe,_ ’ His mom always warned him before they left, and they always were. Except, this was the first time that the teens were able to obtain beer, so everyone was staying the night to avoid any casualties. After making his rounds with Erwin to help be introduced to everyone, Levi made his way to Jean and asked about how to navigate the kitchen. After the short tour, Levi took a spot at the head of the island and began to mix drinks like he did at Miche’s party, cleverly using tricks that Kenny taught him when he sometimes had to help out at the bar.

About two hours later, everyone was easily losing their sobriety. Hanji was enthusiastically doing karaoke with Sasha to a song about food while Moblit passed out candy to trick-or-treaters that had the misfortune of ringing Jean’s doorbell. Thankfully, Moblit had a good sober-face so the parents who chaperoned said trick-or-treaters never called the cops (either that or they didn’t care).

“Lev… I need another,” Armin stumbled to the counter, casually still being a lightweight.

“Okay, but this is your last one, Squirt, so make it count,” Levi used the rest of the vodka he brought and mixed Armin his vodka-cran, sliding over the glass to him, “Come see me after you’re done for some water.”

Ignoring the glass in front of him, Armin bounded around the counter and threw his arms around Levi, tucking the elder’s head into his chest due to the height difference and laying his own on top, “Thank you, Levi-Wevi! I loovveeee youuuuu!” He dramatically kissed the top of Levi’s head and the senior grunted, twisting his way out of Armin’s embrace. 

“Yeah, love you too, Squirt. Go back to the party,” Levi rubbed the top of his head where Armin had kissed him with a frown in his eyes but a smile on his face, “And go get Erwin, because I’m done at the kitchen for tonight and I still wanna get hammered.” At this, Armin wolf-whistled because even in his intoxicated state, he knew that Levi wanted to get hammered in more ways than one.

“Still the most emotional drunk I’ve seen,” Levi muttered under his breath as Armin walked away, only to smile once again when Erwin entered the kitchen. Oh fuck yeah, it was time

Tripping over his own feet as he made his way back to the living room, Armin sat down next to Ymir and hugged her as the older girl watched Historia interact with Annie and Mikasa with the same glossy eyes that were induced by alcohol. 

“Ymir, your brother is like, so pretty,” He started, continuing to hug her. She looked over and gasped, hugging him back, “OH MY GOD! Historia, there’s two of you,” she wailed, slapping a huge kiss on Armin’s cheek, “Hey, after this, let’s run away and get married!”

“No! You don’t understand! Your brother is pretty!” Armin cried, trying to now escape the hug.

“BUT YOU’RE LESBIAN!” Ymir finally let go when Historia came back across the room, plopping into Ymir’s lap, “Oh thank god, Historia #1, you’re back!” As Armin crawled away, the two girls cuddled.

“Listen up!” Jean called, standing and trying to gain his balance.

“I am superrrrrrr drunk right now,” he started, “and guys, I’m so horny. Have I told you guys I’m bisexual? I want dick like, so bad right now!” Hearing this, Armin in his drunken state were glad that the kids had opted to get picked up by Bert’s mom to have a group sleepover together because he knew that this was totally going in the same direction as ~~chapter 6~~ Miche’s party.

Everyone whooped and hollered, Reiner yelling out a, _‘FUCKING SAME!’_ and Armin caught Erwin and Levi sneaking back upstairs. What is up with the deja vu lately?

“Ok, let’s sit in a circle! I’m greeaaattt at these games!” Hanji gushed, ushering everyone into a circle and plopping down. Armin sat himself next to Jean and Marco, and he could see Eren eyeing Marco up and down from across the circle but didn’t care. In fact, just to be a little shit and feeling brave from the liquid courage running through his system, Armin leaned up and licked lightly at Marco’s neck before placing a kiss at the freckled boy’s jaw, making Marco’s arm sneak around Armin’s shoulders and him leaning down to kiss his forehead.

“Okay, what game, babes?” Nanaba inquired and everyone began to talk. Ymir and Historia were zoned out, just cuddling each other from where they sat. Jean, Reiner, Moblit and Mikasa agreed on Spin-the-Bottle, Annie stayed out of it, and Eren, Bertholdt, Miche, Sasha, and Connie fought heavily for either 7 Minutes in Heaven or Truth or Dare.

“Okay, so since I own the house, I get to choose the game. By majority, 7 Minutes wins!” A cheer erupted from those who voted for it, high fives going around but due to alcohol-induced hand-to-eye coordination, they all missed and giggled, “And everyone is okay with being paired up with any gender?” Jean questioned to make sure, to which everyone nodded except...

“YES! Oh my god, yes!” Eren nearly screamed, jumping up to his feet and pointing a finger to the sky, “Guys, I don’t know if I told you this, but I’m Eren Jaeger. Eren Kruger Jaeger, and I like people. I LOVE GIRLS A LOT BUT GUYS ARE SUPER SEXY!” He yelled at his newfound discovery. Dumbstruck by the outting, but also expecting it one day or another, the group of friends congratulated Eren and he sat back down, bumping his head repeatedly into Mikasa’s shoulder just to be annoying.

The music seemed miles away and every word spoken processed slowly in Armin’s brain, but apparently he was going to be first to spin. So he reached forward and tried grabbing the bottle to spin it, but in his vision, there were at least 3 different bottles to choose from so he went with the right bottle. He grabbed at the air, disappointed to find nothing in his hand.

“Oh, baby no, right here!” Marco moved his hand to the left bottle, and there was still nothing there. Both lovers seemed confused and Armin wanted to cry. Which one was the real bottle?

“You drunk idiots, it’s right here!” Sasha, who was just as much of a drunk idiot as the other two, reached forward and spun the bottle for Armin. Once, twice, three times it went around before it slowed to a stop. It landed in between Eren and Bertholdt, who looked at each other with wide eyes.

“Rock, paper, scissors for the twinky, boys!” Hanji cackled, falling into Moblit’s side. They did, and Eren threw paper while Bertholdt threw rock.

“Okay, Eren wins! And remember, we need proof!” Moblit called after the two boys who began making their way into Jean’s supply closet in the hallway. Armin blew a quick kiss to Marco for reassurance, who looked like a kicked puppy knowing his ex-boyfriend-kinda-still-boyfriend would be doing something with someone else. Jean shoved Eren into the closet and let Armin walk in gracefully before shutting the door behind them and slurring, “You’re time starts...now!” 

Silence.

In the darkness, Armin could hear Eren’s breathing and smell the tequila that infiltrated each breath.

“Er-Bear?” Armin questioned, looking up at his friend. They were both chest to chest in the small closet and Armin was held to a height disadvantage, but it didn’t matter much.

“Mm?”

“Doesn’t mean anything? The socks are on!” He giggled, running a hand through his bangs. He removed his gloves from his Buzz Lightyear outfit and slowly reached up, grabbing Eren’s cowboy hat and removing it.

“Ar-Armin… we don’t have to if…” Eren seemed to be beginning to sober up at the proximity, feeling his heart contract oddly at the closeness of their faces like it always did. Oh, did Eren wish he had the power to make it stop.

“What if I want to? We need to play by the rules…” Armin whispered cheekily, getting onto his tip-toes to ghost his breath against Eren’s ear. Grabbing the cowboy vest of Eren’s costume, he pulled Eren down to his eye level. 

“Armin, I-” Eren could feel himself coming back, the alcohol no longer having the effect it did five minutes ago.

“Eren, please? I want this. Remember what I said? Nothing has to mean anything if you don’t want it to...we don’t have to label this. It’s just a game, it means nothing. Please…” Armin became flushed, begging for Eren’s attention. The situation had Armin longing for someone’s touch, his hormones at an all-time high after being affected by the four-too-many vodka crans he had. He persisted, taking kitten licks at Eren’s neck in a similar fashion to how he did with Marco while making attempts to convince Eren through every free breath. The tall brunette, having not had a lot of physical affection lately for obvious reasons, let out small whimpers like a little virgin (albeit, he was, so no shame in his game). No longer giving a shit about what this would mean in the morning, Eren gave in.

“Fine, but what are we going to do for the proof?” He felt himself letting loose, falling back into his intoxicated state. The closet warped around them in Eren’s eyes, but Armin stayed crystal clear as he pulled away victoriously from his neck.

“I wanna..” Armin giggled, “touch the snake in your boot, Woody!”

Both boys fell into hysterics but then distantly heard Jean call for their 3-minute warning.

“No, no snakes in boots,” Eren offered, “Let me, uh, try something. Tilt your neck, Ar.”

To which, the blonde did. He removed the neck piece of his costume and tilted his neck, leaving the clean, pale skin out in the open. Eren moved forward, ghosting over Armin’s pulse, and then dove in with a final “Fuck it.”

He attached his lips to Armin’s neck, sucking at the skin harshly, causing Armin to cry out at the sensitivity. The blonde’s hands detached from the cowboy vest and gripping tightly onto Eren’s shoulders as the boy continued to violate Armin’s neck. The last time he had given a hickey was to his 8th grade girlfriend of two weeks, Hitch. So, he made sure to pay extra attention to his actions in order to not seem completely inexperienced (to which, he wasn’t). Finally realizing that his hands were still at his sides, he brought them to Armin’s hips as the blonde’s small moans spurred him on. In a flurry of no thoughts and pure sexual desire, he brought Armin’s hips forward to his, lightly grinding them together.

“Oh _god_ ,” He heard Armin cry at the friction but also heard the door begin to unlock. In a last ditch attempt to claim what was his, in a unknowing, drunken rush to show off to and show up Marco, Eren opened his mouth wide and sank his teeth down onto the conjunction where Armin’s neck connected to his shoulders, pulling their hips flush together and as his teeth sank into the skin, he let his tongue work over the hickeys he left that laid underneath his open mouth before pulling away. Feeling the skin break, he heard Armin’s cry of shock but then a long, strung out moan of pleasure and bliss as blood droplets surfaced and lightly trickled into Eren’s mouth.

 _‘Of course he liked that, damn satanic masochist,’_ Eren thought proudly before pulling away, licking the blood away from his teeth and then turning to a shocked group of friends who had opened the door ten seconds prior. Eren’s hands were still pushing their lips together and Armin was smiling in a daze, head still tilted to the side and exposing the multiple hickeys that graced his neck along with the bite mark that circled around the purple cluster, a few of the teeth marks dripping blood. Finally noticing the group looking at them, Armin just surveyed the group until he met eyes with Marco, smirking at the boy.

“Can we try blood play?”

And that was the signal for everyone, including the two friends, to make their way back to the circle. Somehow, even in the group’s fuzzy minds, everyone still knew that it was always an unspoken rule that what happened at Jean’s house on Halloween, stayed in Jean’s house after Halloween, That’s why no one ever talked about how Reiner and Bertholdt officially started going out two years ago (Jean found them naked in his parents room), why Connie and Sasha vowed to never go to Taco Bell anymore last Halloween (they had to stay behind to...clean the bathrooms), and how Marco found out he was a bottom (that’s why Jean didn’t know about Connie and Sasha’s accidents last year. He was just a little preoccupied, to say the least), and no matter what, someone always fucked whether it meant something or not so everyone always just agreed to accept things as they came and never bring it up again.

The rest of the night was spent drinking the rest of Miche’s booze while he was in the closet paired up with Erwin (unfortunate for Levi, and the small man made sure to crawl into Erwin’s lap for the rest of the game and didn’t allow the student council president to get up until everyone began to retire to bed). Despite the pairings that came (Bertholdt and Sasha, Connie and Reiner, Jean and Mikasa, Annie and Hanji, etc.) and the jokes that were made, everyone knew it wouldn’t last by morning so they all went in, did whatever they wanted to do, were caught in a scandalous position, and then everyone sat back down and the game repeated itself until everyone had gotten some fill of action.

Everyone slowly started passing out, music still playing on a low volume and the lights were still dim. Sobering up, Marco helped Mikasa get people to separate couches as everyone usually slept in the living room except for the casual hookup (but Erwin and Levi had already made it back to the party, so everyone was together regardless. They located each person’s nightbag and helped them change into proper pajamas, throwing all the costumes into a pile near the front door. After finally getting everyone into a comfortable sleeping place, both teens knuckle-bumped and Marco retired in between Jean and Armin on the floor while Mikasa laid against Eren’s side, who was curled in on the left side of the couch.

-

Mikasa woke up entangled in her little brother’s arms. She skillfully maneuvered out of them without waking the boy, tiptoeing around the bodies of her friends on the floor in order to close all of the blinds that granted sunlight access into the large room. She hissed as the sun hit her eyes, her hangover beginning to set it’s way in her head. After closing off the room, she went to the kitchen to close the curtains of the glass slider that led to the backyard, but found that both those curtains and the window above the sink were already closed off. Armin was snuggled into the counter corner near the sink, idly sipping on a cup of coffee. His head hung low, in shame or because he was hung over, Mikasa couldn’t tell.

“Did you already take some pain meds?” She asked, making her way over to Jean’s fridge and throwing it open to grab a bottle of water. She then crossed over to grab some of the Aspirin that her and Marco had laid out prior to falling asleep. She threw her head back and downed the water to help cure her dry throat, taking the two pills down with it. She heard Armin give an affirmative hum as she twisted her bottle cap closed. Crouching in order to get her head below the two arms that encased his coffee cup, Mikasa carefully raised herself and Armin outstretched his arms realizing her attempt. Mikasa nuzzled against Armin comfortably, only being about an inch taller than him now since he grew over the summer. They both stood their in the embrace before Armin moved one hand to unwrap and take a sip of his coffee.

“What’s on your mind?”

Armin tilted his neck in response, exposing the multiple hickeys that laid on his neck, easily exposed by the low collar of the t-shirt he changed into before crashing the night prior. Mikasa observed it, seeing a cluster of approximately three different hickeys just above his collar bone, completely encased by a large bite mark that had begun to bruise and leave a purple ring along with some dried blood along some of the teeth marks.

“Well, on the bright side, we don’t have school so no one will see it. Plus, no one is probably gonna bring it up ever again and it’s not like it meant anything. It’s Halloween, remember?” The older girl chuckled before slipping out of Armin’s arms completely, moving to the fridge to grab food in order to prepare breakfast. Armin nodded a response, gulping down the rest of his coffee and put the mug aside, helping Mikasa get the food ready. Slowly, everyone started to trickle into the kitchen, groaning from their hangovers and back pains from sleeping on the floor. They all sat or stood around the island, making light conversation to start the morning. Armin was even shocked to see Hanji laying against Moblit’s shoulder silently, drinking their coffee while their partner just combed through their ratty hair that had fallen out of its casual ponytail. But, Eren seemed to be his casual self, Armin noted, and didn’t seem to be phased by his impromptu coming out the night prior. Even when Marco came and wrapped his arms around Armin from behind while he cooked, the freckled teen didn’t make any comments about the obvious markings that littered his neck and claimed him.

Armin agreed with Mikasa, snuggling back into Marco’s chest. No one was going to bring it up again. Not how him and Eren made out, how he licked Eren’s neck, how he clearly remembered the way it felt when Eren’s teeth sank into his own neck. It wouldn’t be remembered how everyone caught them grinding against each other like everything depended on it and the obvious boner Armin sported. By next week, Armin would forget about the way Eren stared lustfully at Armin from across the circle until they all went to bed, seeing the brunette lick his lips and his teeth every time he saw the Jaeger boy’s eyes dip down to Armin’s neck and back to whoever was talking.

But that’s because whatever happened at Jean’s on Halloween, stayed at Jean’s after Halloween. It was just like Mikasa said, it’s not like it meant anything to Armin, right?

...Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ARMIN DENIAL ARC ARMIN DENIAL ARC ARMIN DENIAL ARC


	11. Armin's Denial Arc is as Short as Levi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey yall! i was out of town for the weekend so ee i would've had this chapt up soon but then my friend told me to extend it a bit and frankly they were right :p shout out to kayla mwah. also one of you actually did go to my tiktok HAHAH omg i felt loved klsdfhalkfejhqf if that was you then mwah mwah <3 okay now onto chapter 11!!

**_“AH FUCK!”_ **

Armin banged his knee against the cafeteria table as he jumped, attracting the attention of the entire cafeteria with his loud cursing. Eren retracted his hand from Armin’s shoulder and tried to play it off as if he didn’t do anything while a teacher quickly made their way over and the table of freshmen that was across from them began to gossip loudly.

_“Oh my god, isn’t that Armin Arlert?”_

_“Yeah, I heard he’s like, the smartest kid here besides that short senior. I didn’t know people like him swore!”_

_“Y’know, he’s kinda ho- oh fuck be quiet,”_ A quick glare from Mikasa shut them up.

“Mr. Arlert, this is the first time I’ve ever had a problem with you so I will excuse it, but if I hear language like that again I will have to give a detention,” Luckily, Shadis was the one closest to them that was on lunch duty today.

“Y-Yes Mr. Shadis- I’m so sorry, it’ll never happen again!” The blonde pathetically squeaked out, voice cracking and all in fear of his perfect student record, and he rubbed his knee in a poor attempt to take away the searing pain.

The chemistry teacher nodded before walking away and continuing to stalk around students as lunch dragged out. As soon as he was gone, everyone burst out into a chorus of laughter which made the school’s cafeteria continue to set their attention on the group. 

“Oh god, Armin, I didn’t know you had it in you!” Ymir cackled, wiping tears away with the hand that wasn’t around Historia while Historia scolded Ymir for laughing at the poor boy. The two had decided to start sitting with the group that monday, joining in and making their little family just a bit bigger and better.

“Yeah, dude, all Eren did was put his hand on your shoulder!” Reiner joined in, mimicking Armin’s scream and made the whole group fall back into laughter. Armin even caught eye of Annie and Zofia quietly cackling, as stoic as they were, and Jean was hacking up a lung because he couldn’t breathe from how hard he was laughing. 

Reiner was correct though, Armin realized as he recalled the scene.

 **_‘Mhm, you’re a dirty little Caesar salad, aren’t you? Yeah, I’m gonna fuck you up,’_ ** _Armin taunted his lunch mentally as he shook his box roughly, mixing in the dressing as his stomach grumbled. He felt a hand on his shoulder and presence behind him, which didn’t so much as bother him until he turned around to check who it was. He checked behind him quickly and saw Eren, giving a small smile and returning to shaking his salad until he realized. He whipped his head back around, making eye contact with those same emerald green eyes with fear, throwing his salad and the table and jumping up as far as he could, yelling a profanity as his knee banged against the table._

And now here they were, Armin fiddling with the scarf around his neck and Eren sitting next to him, who just assumed he’d scared Armin. He surveyed the table once again and accidentally made eye contact with Marco, who he had been ignoring since the party.

Oh, Eren scared Armin alright.

It was the wednesday after the Halloween party. While the three hickeys left behind had faded to yellow spots on his neck, the bite mark that encased them continued to bruise. Luckily, Mikasa had lent Armin her red scarf to wear until it healed fully so no teacher, student, or his grandpa could see his shame. Also, it was cold out due to the autumn season, so no one questioned the choice in apparel. People only questioned Mikasa, who had almost never been seen without the garment, who now replaced it with a simple gem necklace that's origins were currently unknown.

 _“Armin was cold, so I let him borrow it for the week,”_ She would tell outside friends who asked, but the table (minus the kids) knew the true story about what lay beneath the layer of clothing. The deep bite mark that should simply resemble a night of fun and flurry between a group of best friends.

Wrong.

To Armin, it was a night of pure confusion. He knew the rules, yet he had a hard time abiding by them. Every time he stripped himself of the scarf to shower, he caught himself rethinking the night over and over again. The feeling of Eren’s hands clutching his hips, his sharp, white teeth scraped against his skin. The way Armin’s dainty hands wrapped perfectly around Eren’s biceps as he held on desperately. No matter how hammered the boy had been, there was no way he could forget the ecstasy that Eren had made him experience, especially the stars he saw as the other boy’s teeth dug into his skin. It would end with him looking in the bathroom mirror directly at the mark, shower water running in the background to disguise his noises, and a hand shoved down his pants. 

But you know what? It was the first time anything so... _erotic_ had happened to him. Although Marco and him had gotten up to some pretty risque things in their free time, no handjob could ever compare to the simple 3-minute makeout session with his childhood best friend- and therefore Armin blamed it all on that. He was a tiny little virgin, so why else would he spend all his freetime daydreaming about a small fling? He definitely didn’t like Eren, he liked Marco in all of his Marco-like glory. He liked Marco’s freckles, his nice personality, his emerald green eyes, his long shaggy hair that he began to tie into a man bun every day- wait. Armin pinched his wrist underneath the table as punishment for letting Eren infiltrate his thoughts again. Stupid, horny brain, thinking about ~~that sexy hunk of a man~~ Eren.

No, no, Armin shook his head. He liked Marco. This little fervor he was in about Eren would go away in a week.

-

“Oh so you’re down _bad bad!”_ Hanji cackled, adding little cliparts of whales to their slides that they readied to present to the elementary school.

“What- no! Are you guys serious?” Armin’s eyes bulged out of his head, “I am not ‘down bad’ for Eren, it’s just annoying how I can’t stop thinking about him!”

“So, down bad,” Moblit supplied, then adding a quick _‘Hanji, no’_ as he deleted their cliparts of whales that definitely crowded the slide too much.

“Imagine Marco doing that to you,” Erwin shrugged, looking over Levi’s shoulder at the presentation.

“ _Abbb_ solutely not, Marco would never. He’s like the Jesus-reincarnate, it’s just not him.” Armin shuddered at the thought.

“Try asking him about it,” Armin just huffed and nodded. Upperclassmen knew best, but he pondered it as he came home later that day, passing up his cousins and immediately going to his room. He knew he was smart, so he could figure this out. As long as he looked at it from an outside perspective, he could figure out how he really felt.

Him and Eren hang out nearly everyday at the Jaeger household and Armin had been considered family ever since he was five. Comparing all the times he hung out with Marco and his parents, they loved him, and being an over-exaggeration teenager Armin made a pros and cons list about both sets of parents as possible parents-in-law.

Obviously, the win went to the Jaegers. He just couldn’t see himself having quite as good of a relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Bodt as he did with Grisha and Carla. I mean, he was on first-name basis, it would be obvious who would be the better candidate as grandparents and parents-in-law in general.

Armin then considered him and Marco’s relationship in general. Within the two months that Eren and Armin had made up, Armin realized they had spent more time together than both him and Marco combined including the summer. He was also more comfortable around Eren considering they were best friends; Armin just couldn’t unleash hell and rip ass in front of Marco like he could with Eren, and he realized that when it came down to it Armin always censored how he felt around Marco. It felt like he was constantly walking on eggshells around the boy, which is natural because they had only been together for about five months (three officially), but he wanted more. As a poor, hopeless romantic, he wanted a soulmate, and he knew that Marco would never know Armin as well as Eren knew him no matter how long they were together.

Shoving his head into the pillow with an obvious answer in mind to who he would prefer in bed, he let out a muffled scream. A good yell of _‘FUCK, BITCH, SHIT, ASS, MOTHERFUCKING HELL’_ into the poor lump, and then got up to take a shower before bed. He could make this work with Marco and it was hard to accept the possibility that he might like Eren.

Maybe if he tried harder for Marco, he would realize that the whole Eren-situation was a silly mistake.

-

Marco Bodt knew his worth.

He knew he was extremely nice, very helpful to those in need, the whole shebang, and that’s how he liked it. But, it did make him prone to people walking all over him. Although hard to deal with at first, his best friend Jean helped him and now he knows when people are trying to tiptoe around him because he knew his worth and knew what he deserved.

And Marco knew he deserved better than Armin beginning to tiptoe around him.

“Hey, do you think you can skip marine biology today? I want to talk,” And Armin’s eyes struck with fear. If he didn’t have something to hide, Marco knew he wouldn’t have done that. The Armin he knew would just smile and say, “Ok!” before rushing off to class. But this Armin?

“Oh, okay…” The blonde trailed off, nervously glancing around before waving an awkward goodbye and scurrying out of the cafeteria. Marco looked down at his shoes as he waited for Jean, fiddling with some loose change in his pants pockets.

“C’mon, Marco, we’ll be late,” his head tilted up to meet Jean’s eyes and he smiled and nodded, following the two-toned junior to their art class. He didn’t have to worry now, he was with Jean and they were going to art. Armin could wait until after school to be on his mind.

And he did. Marco had a great time in art class, save for the multiple times that Jean kept trying to take a hold of Marco’s hand to doodle on it and then Jean snapping at a freshman girl who nearly snitched on Jean for not paying attention. Oh, poor girl that Marco sympathized with, because he used to do the exact same thing but he had learned to mind his business as his time in high school went on.

After school, Marco texted Armin to meet him at the school entrance, so it was no surprise to see Armin standing awkwardly a few feet away from the door. As per usual, Marco offered a smile to Armin to which the other boy returned weekly.

They didn’t know where they were walking. It would seem, from the streets they were taking, they were going to the local park, but Marco just walked aimlessly in complete honesty. He just needed to buy some time.

“Has something been wrong lately?”

“ _UH-_ what?” Armin squeaked. Nice going, Arlert. He cleared his throat before speaking again, “I mean- what?”

Marco just laughed, shaking his head at the ground and continuing to walk, “I know you, Armin, and I’m not stupid. What’s up?”

“Uh…” A lot of things were wrong, and Armin knew it. It was at least a week after the party, and he still sported Mikasa’s red scarf around his neck. Albeit, the weather was still perfect for it, so there was no harm and no foul. But, after layering on Mikasa’s concealer earlier that morning, the hickeys were long gone but the bite mark still stood out clear as day. Every time Armin recalled the event, he idly fiddled with the scarf, specifically the material that covered up the bite.

Things wrong with the bite included:

  1. It still existed
  2. Armin liked it
  3. Armin wanted to take the scarf off and show it to the world
  4. If someone saw it, they knew that goody-two-shoes, valedictorian-to-be, built like a sunflower Armin was, in fact, a ‘very kinky girl’ in the wise words of Rick James and that was _not_ something he wanted to be passed around the student body (especially with the whole ‘everyone hearing him swear’ fiasco the week prior)
  5. The memories of Halloween continued to occupy his mind every time the opportunity was presented



A small moment of happiness, pleasure, relief would course through Armin’s body and shake up his cold, dead heart until the guilt flooded through him. He wanted _Eren’s_ touch. He didn’t want Marco to bite him or shove their hips together because that wasn’t really Marco’s thing and Armin didn’t want it to be his thing, as it was what made Eren so unique. Marco couldn’t be rough like Eren, or clueless like Eren. The freckled boy, nicer than Jesus himself, couldn’t embody the devilish way that Eren attacked his neck in a furious rush to claim him. And as much as Armin tried to implement their friends’ rules, he couldn’t forget Halloween night even if he wanted to.

But, it’s not like Armin could tell Marco all of that.

“It’s just… you aren’t bothered by this?” He fiddled with the scarf. It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was better than nothing.

Realization dawned on Marco’s face regardless, though. Was Armin really that much of an open book?

“Oh, god no! Jesus, Armin, you made me think something was actually wrong!” Marco laughed whole-heartedly, flashing Armin a smile, “We were all drunk, it was a game, yada yada yada. I know it meant nothing to you, so it doesn’t mean anything to me. Unless it does mean something to you, then we should talk about it.” Armin was actually not that much of an open book, he confirmed from Marco’s response.

Oh Marco, always so understanding. Armin chuckled at the thought, because that’s why he liked Marco so, so much. All it was was a sexual fantasy, so Armin supposed it really didn’t matter, just like Marco said. As they briefly brushed over the event, Armin could feel his knees go weak at the memory of what Eren’s tongue felt like against his skin, but Marco was right. It didn’t mean anything, they were just best friends.

“Um.. it just made me think about, us?” Armin’s face went red as he continued his confession. _‘Just take Levi’s advice, it will be fine,’_ he lightly chanted mentally.

“Honestly, there isn’t anything between Eren and I, but I really did like how...rough he was,” Marco stayed silent, so Armin kept going, “I know we aren’t really fully together, but I figured since we kinda are, if we’re both free we could...try it?” Knowing from experience, Armin knew that he couldn’t stay in denial to what he wanted.

“I, uh,” Marco stuttered lightly. Armin looked over, and their faces both matched to the same shade of red.

“Can I think on it?” Marco asked.

“Of course, don’t feel pressured or anything,” and that’s where the conversation left off. At this point, they were at the park, and they split up to walk home. Thankfully, his grandpa was asleep when he got there and Annie and Zofia were still at school due to like, sports or something (Armin forgot, in all honesty). Therefore, this presented him with the perfect opportunity to get off to the thought of Marco treating him roughly in bed.

A few minutes in, Armin looked down frustratedly and glared at how soft he was.

Fine, he got off to Eren being rough with him again. No big deal.

-

The next days were the ones where Armin picked up on Marco’s behavior. The freckled boy kept his distance, mostly sticking with Jean. They didn’t talk much, as exes-but-not-really’s do, but it still bothered him. Marco always made it a point to sit next to him regardless, so it hurt a little bit when Marco sat with Jean, and for the first time he and Eren shared a rage over the horsefaced pitcher. Ugh, stupid Jean. He also stayed around Ymir and Historia. What the hell? How could Marco hang out with his female-look alike but not him?

And then, like a beam of light from the sky, Marco approached him. 

“Hey, let’s talk after school?”

Hanji was not too happy to have Armin skip out twice in the week, especially since it was Friday and that was the club’s chill day, but let him go regardless.

Him and Marco walked in the same direction to the park, not speaking until they arrived there fifteen minutes later. The taller boy guided them both to sit on a bench and watch the grass, letting the summer breeze sift through their hair.

“I haven’t been completely honest with you,” Marco started and Armin felt his heart drop. Here came the speech. Regardless, he looked over with a soft smile. The beginning of the official end.

Marco had his hands clasped in his lap, backpack abandoned near his feet. Armin took note of his outfit, a button-down flannel poking out under his gray crewneck. He looked good, really good. “I’ve gotten feelings for someone else,” Damn, that really sucked for how nice he looked. It really sucked how Armin felt a weight lift of his shoulders, too, even though the whole situation still hurt.

But, Armin being Armin, he just smiled and nodded. It would be unfair of him to be angry over something that Marco couldn’t control. Just like Armin couldn’t wish away his intrusive thoughts of Eren, Marco couldn’t wish away his feelings towards this mystery person.

“And I tried to make it go away, I did,” so did Armin, “but you know it doesn’t work like that.” A sniffle sounded and Marco finally looked up, tears in his eyes but a smile wide on his face.

“Armin, you are one of the most caring people I’ve ever met and I’m thankful for the time we were together, but I didn’t want you thinking too far ahead in the future when I couldn’t see the same things you did.”

Armin wiped away his own tears, nodding and a small amount of realization fluttered through his chest. You readers didn’t think he was completely clueless, right? To think you all would’ve considered the fact that Armin was nearly as dumb as Eren when it came to his feelings- shameful.

“I think I might like someone too,” Armin started in the silence. He heard Marco laugh.

“Eren, right?” Armin blushed, but nodded his head.

“It’s okay, mine is Jean,” and they both doubled over in sad, post-breakup laughter. As a final goodbye, Armin pulled his knees up to his chest and leaned into Marco’s side, who wrapped an arm around Armin’s shoulders.

“We really are pathetic, huh? What was it for you?” Armin asked, gazing at the sky. The sun was still out, there was still time in the day. It wouldn’t hurt to bask in this.

“Just has always been like that. Never realized it was romantic until before the party, I caught him singing along to some Madonna song while we prepped for everyone to come over. We’ve known each other since forever, but something about it was different. I mean, we’ve fooled around a bit before, but it was all just curiosity. Now it’s...real, you know?”

Armin tucked his face into Marco’s side, nodding and breathing in his scent, “Yeah, I do.”

“What was it for you?” Marco’s thumb rubbed up and down on Armin’s shoulder.

“It wasn’t the first time we made out while drunk,” Armin confessed. “It was a drunken accident, same situation, but Miche held a party during September. First time I got drunk so I didn’t know my limit, Eren didn’t want to leave, so we both ended up getting hammered. For a while, only me and the club members remembered. Eren was completely clueless, but when I told him? He asked if he had socks on,” Armin groaned and he felt Marco’s chest bounce up and down as he laughed.

“And then it happened again, and even though we were both still drunk, he still remembered our little agreement. I don’t really know if it’s fully romantic yet, but I honestly can’t stop thinking about it-”

“-and that’s why you asked me?” Marco finished.

“Yeah, sorry,” another laugh from Marco.

“It’s okay. Hey, we’re both in this whole feelings-thing together at least. Hooray for unity!” He put up a hand. Both of their tears were long gone by now and there was still no bad blood like the first time, so Armin returned the high five and they both sat up, going their separate ways home once again.

“Hey Armin!”

He turned around, taking a last glance at Marco.

“See you at school on Monday.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I GENUINELY TRIED TO MAKE ARMINS DENIAL LONGER BUT I PHYSICALLY COULDNT SIGH :( also hooray for jeanmarco am i right


	12. "Poo" -Kenny Ackerman, 2021

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello everyone!! im unaware of how familiar everyone is with baseball, so im leaving a reference photo of a baseball clubhouse below :D the clubhouse usually just has the lockers with the uniforms and a tv, couch, kinda just a chill area. 
> 
> Clubhouse reference photo - https://www.jesuithighschool.org/sites/main/files/imagecache/lightbox/main-images/0-joewatanabe2021-jwmedia-09470-900x600_0.jpg
> 
> that's mainly it! onto chapter 12 <3

“Well, it’s a good thing you realized it now. No one likes waiting ten chapters for the main character to realize that they’re gay,” Levi spared a glare towards all of you, the readers, before looking back at Armin.

Armin whipped around, surveying the empty classroom behind him, before turning back to Levi with a confused look on his face, “Excuse me? Who are you talking to?”

Levi shrugged a response.

_ ‘Whatever,’ _ Armin said, packing up the club supplies. Everyone else had long left the elementary classroom, exhausted after teaching a small class of 5th graders about whales. The teacher was also out making copies, leaving both boys to converse about whatever until the teacher returned. Now that they had to teach these stupid classes after school, it made Mondays the #1 on Armin’s ‘things to curse when you’re bored’ list.

“There was no realizing, Lev. Maybe I’m just super horny. Have you seen me? It’s not exactly like I’m the most active person on the planet. Sure Marco and I did...things but it never went too far. We never even really touched each other,” the blonde confessed.

“Damn, that really sucks. Couldn’t be me,”

“Okay you know what, sorry I’m not you Levi! Sorry I don’t have a  _ huuuge  _ macho boyfriend who has a  _ big enormous gargantuan juicy amazing mammoth-sized schlong to rip open your tight asshole!”  _ Armin exclaimed sarcastically, waving his hands around in a theatrical manner.

“Mr. Arlert, Mr. Ackerman, I think it would be best if you made your absence now,” Armin and Levi’s gaze shot to the door, revealing the teacher returning with worksheet copies clutched in her hands.

“Mrs. Berzenska!” Armin squeaked, voice cracking pathetically. Levi stuffed the rest of the papers they used that day into his Jansport and stood up, taking his leave and opting to leave Armin in the dust. With a pink coat dusting across his cheeks, Armin gave a weak smile and threw on his backpack, running past the teacher with a quick, “Sorry, see you next week!” and caught up with his senior buddy.

“Lev, what the hell! How could you leave me behind like that!” Armin gasped for breath desperately as he caught up to Levi’s unimaginably fast pace. 

“Sorry, trying to get to my boyfriend’s big dick, sorry.”

“Are you actually mad about that? Are you serious?” Levi stopped and turned to Armin, who was grabbing his inhaler from the front pocket of his backpack and taking a huff.

“No, can’t be mad at the facts,  _ Gicler ‘Squirt’ _ ” Levi chuckled lightly and shook his head before continuing to walk once Armin caught his breath, “but seriously, you like Eren, right? Even if it is just sexually, it was enough to get you guys to break it off and I’m pretty sure that’s good enough a reason to pursue him.” The elder continued, turning the corner and guiding both boys to his apartment. Armin shrugged his shoulders. Fair enough.

“I don’t know, I guess it’s just weird to think that I like...Eren of all people,” Armin shuddered. He liked Eren. His best friend that he had grown up with and whose parents practically raised him.

“Things happen like that, Squirt, you just have to accept as it comes. Just try it out and if you guys don’t like it? No harm, no foul, just go back to being Eren and Armin,” Levi was getting his tea ready so his back was turned, but the words were still clear in Armin’s head. The younger boy just hung his head, keeping it down even when Levi shoved a mug of tea directly underneath his face. The steam felt nice against his skin, he deducted.

The door opened and the lanky Uncle Kenny walked in, tossing his coat across the chair in the living room and hanging up his fedora on the hat rack next to the entrance. Both boys whipped around, shocked at the invasion considering Kenny wasn’t supposed to be home until 2am at the earliest.

“Oi,” Levi called, “ _ Pourquoi rentres-tu si tôt?” _

_ ‘Why are you home so early?’  _

Armin just stared between both men. It’s not like he knew what they were saying.

_ “Nous avons fait l’inventaire aujourd’hui et fermé le bar jusqu’à demain.” _

_ ‘We did inventory today and closed the bar until tomorrow.’ _

Levi just nodded his head and turned back to his tea, bobbing the bag up and down. Seeing Levi’s content face, he figured no bad had happened to the bar. Armin mimicked the elder, dipping in his tea bag repeatedly as Kenny walked into the kitchen to grab himself a beer.

“Uncle Kenny?” Armin called as Kenny was about to make his way to living room. The man froze in his steps and turned back around, greeting Armin with that same sinister smile.

“ _ Oui?” _

_ ‘Yes?’ _

“What do you do when you like someone that you can’t have?”

The old man’s eyes went wide and darted directly to Levi, who caught sight of his bewilderment. Once again, tea was everywhere as Levi sputtered and coughed from shock. He got up from the table to clean it up as Armin began to laugh, “Oh  _ god! _ I don’t like Levi!”

Kenny pinched the bridge of his nose, “You teenagers… very scary,” the French accent continued to stay prominent in the pronunciation of each word.

“I like my best friend, Eren. But we grew up together, is that bad?”

“Mm, no. You like that friend, you begin to,” he flourished his hands. Armin figures he meant date, “But if it no work out? Poo,” Kenny spat the last part, mimicking as if there was a bad taste in his mouth.

“Do not know until you try,  _ oui? _ ” And Armin smiled, nodding his head as acknowledgement and in thanks. Kenny took this and raised his beer bottle, resuming to taking himself to the living room.

“It’s almost as if I told you the exact same thing,” Levi deadpanned across the table, trademark frown gracing his face.

“Shut up.”

-

_ “Jaegerbomb! Jaegerbomb!” _

Connie and Sasha were able to cheer loud enough for the entire student section and everyone in their friend group knew it, but the rest still cheered with them in support as Eren made his way up to bat. Now that pre-season was in full swing, it meant that there were now home games every Tuesday at Sina High and the small family were always sure to be in attendance. Armin inbetween Mikasa and Sasha watching intently. Usually, Armin would be chatting with Mikasa right now, but his cousin seems to have taken that job for him. He spared another glance towards Mikasa and Annie, catching the soft shade of pink that laid on Annie’s cheeks.

_ ‘These bitches gay? Good for them.’ _ he nodded before turning his attention back to Eren, who had just watched a ball go by.

“Here we go, Eren! You got this!” Armin knew that voice too well as it rang from the dugout. Always the kid Eren complained about and Armin could see the small tuft of auburn hair peeking over the fence. Floch, Armin thinks was his name, was always Eren’s loudest supporter. At first, everyone thought it was cute because Eren had his own little freshman last year, but now it was just creepy.

The umpire’s yell rang out, calling Eren’s first strike. Sina High boo’d, the opposing high school cheered. Everyone saw Eren turn his head back to the opposing team’s catcher, his mouth moving as if he was saying something. Through the overhead lights and past Eren’s helmet, Armin could see the furrowed brows. Eren calls for time and steps out, the other catcher standing up. The crowd goes silent to hear the escalated conversation.

“You got something to say to me, man?” Eren’s yelling at this point, getting all up in the catcher’s face. Eren, he’s in full body gear. Just because you’re a head taller than him doesn’t mean this is a good fight, Armin thinks as he watches, but things slowly just get worse. Mikasa is beginning to stand up, along with Connie and Reiner. Armin stands up with them in a burst of courage and they all begin to run towards the back of the dugout, entering down the stairs and back up onto the field. By time they are out there though, under the bright lights, Eren is on top of the other catcher and his helmet is ripped off along with the catcher’s mask. 

_ Grisha, Carla, please don’t be here, _ Armin begs to whatever God is listening. Thankfully, there was one. Grisha and Carla were both out on date night tonight, so they weren't able to witness the brawl that their hot-headed son was engaging in.

All four friends sprint out to yank Eren off, the umpire giving up and trying to let the coaches handle it when the catcher accidentally elbowed his mouth as the umpire tried to initially break it up. Jean’s out there too, sprinting with his friends to home plate. Reiner and Connie yank Eren off successfully, Jean standing in front of him in order to get him to regain his focus. Armin takes his place, trying to calm Eren down as he thrashed helplessly against Reiner and Connie’s hold. The crowd continues to stay silent, trying to hear what both boys were saying.

Mikasa, Jean, and Coach Weilsman stand in front of the catcher, blocking the opposing team’s coach from seeing Eren. The umpire now decides to step in, good for him. It’s all happening too fast for everyone to comprehend. Mikasa feels a hand on her shoulder and then she’s being ripped away. A flash of long, brown hair once again pummels to the ground on top of the catcher, now being relentless with his punches. A tooth scatters on the ground, no one is sure of who it came from. Mikasa and Jean are now the ones restraining Eren, Weilsman in front of him and poking his chest accusingly.

“What in the  _ hell _ has gotten into you, boy?” He screams. Eren’s still struggling against his personal restraints. He can see the catcher just behind Weilsman, front tooth knocked out and face bloodied. Two people, Eren assumes his parents, are now on the field helping him. What a wimp.

“ _ Answer me, Jaeger!” _ Weilsman’s shout brings Eren back to real time again. Oh shit, did he just do all of this? He can feel two pairs of hands on both arms now, Connie and Reiner he assumes. Armin is trying to talk things out with the umpire, but he promptly turns around and runs up behind Coach Weilsman, getting in between Eren and him.

“Listen, Coach, Eren really isn’t at fault here!” Armin yells, trying to make himself heard over the adults behind them. 

“How the  _ hell _ is this not his fault, boy? He threw the damn punch- now get out of my way!” Weilsman tries to push past him to interrogate Eren more but Armin doesn’t budge, pushing Weilsman back.

“Listen to me!” Even the crowd shut up, which had began to quietly murmur as the fight continued on the field. At this point, Armin took his position as Eren’s protector very seriously.

“Eren is not at fault! While he did throw the first punch, throughout the entire game he has been antagonizing Eren throughout his at-bats and when the catcher himself was up to bat! He admit to calling Eren homophobic slurs, even without knowing his sexuality, to me privately when his parents were trying to smooth things over with the umpire! Eren is innocent!”

The blonde’s chest heaved up and down and he felt the multiple pairs of eyes on him. The student body reeked for more out of the boy, considering they had gotten two surprising actions out of the boy in two weeks. Eren, behind him, seemed to have loosened up, letting his head hang down. His hair tie had falling out, allowing his long hair to curtain his face. Weilsman peeked around and looked at Eren.

“This true, Jaeger? That boy over there callin’ you somethin?” Weilsman’s words were slurred with anger. Eren nodded his head solemnly. This was so embarrassing, he should’ve just taken it.

“What did he say?”

Eren mumbled a response. At this point, the umpire had also come up next to Weilsman to hear the reply. Behind them both, the catcher looked terrified that he’d been outed for his taunting.

“Louder, boy, I can’t hear you.”

“He called me a homo and a faggot. Said I ‘could only play well because I probably drank cum for breakfast’, Coach.”

“Our boy would never do that!” The catcher’s mother cried, holding his poor, beaten face in her hands. She roughly jerked the catcher’s face to meet hers, “Gelgar, is this true?!” She yelled. 

_ How are you gonna be homophobic when your name is literally Gelgar, _ Armin mentally rolled his eyes.

The poor, pompadoured boy who was beaten to an absolute pulp looked down, nodding his head in shame. A gasp resounded from the mom, who began to publicly scold and embarrass him. The boy’s dad made his way over to where Coach Weilsman and the umpire were.

“I am so, so sorry for my son’s behavior. We will not press any sort of charges and we suggest the game goes on as planned, I apologize, please do not take your player out of the game,” the man looked behind to Eren, “I’m sorry, and I will make sure this is handled accordingly. We will take him off the field and deal with consequences once the game ends.”

Eren shrugged; he still felt bad for stopping the game.

The catcher limped off the field and Eren told the umpire to count his at-bat as an out as he slowly walked back to the dugout. His friends guided him from behind in order to make sure Eren didn’t make a last minute decision to whip around and reign hell one last time and Coach Weilsman let Armin and Connie stay behind in the dugout as the game continued in order to cool Eren down. His hair continued to hang pathetically in front of his face as he sat at the end of the dugout. The two friends crouched in front of him and Jean sat next to him, unfortunately hearing a familiar pair of cleats walking up to him.

“Hey Eren I just want to say-”

“Fl*ch, if you say one more word, you’re ending up like him,” Eren didn’t look up from the ground and he didn’t need to in order for Fl*ch to hear him. Unbeknownst to Eren, the sophomore walked back to the team with tears in his eyes.

“Wait- how the fuck did you just say that?” Connie questioned, looking back at Floch and then to Eren.

“Hm? Fl*ch?”

“Wait yeah, what the fuck is that?” Eren shrugged in Jean’s direction to answer his question. It just made sense, didn’t it?

“Well anyways Eren, there’s no reason to be so harsh on Floch-”

“Fl*ch,”

Armin rolled his eyes in annoyance. He was just trying to be a good friend right now.

“Fine, Fl*ch. You should apologize even if you think he’s annoying,”

Eren shrugged his shoulders again.

“Ar, can you grab me a hair tie?” The blonde promptly left the dugout to retrieve one from Mikasa.

“Hey man, for real, are you okay?” Connie asked, putting a hand on Eren’s knee. The brunette also became vaguely aware Jean’s arm wrapped around his shoulder.

No, Eren wasn’t ok. How did that guy know? Was he too obvious? Was it because his hair had gotten longer, like a girl? Did he look like a girl? 

“Woah- Eren, no need to cry, dude. It was just an asshole being an asshole. Con, I’ll meet you in there after the game,” Jean stood up and made his way to his glove, sprinting out to the mound because the inning had ended, “Tell Armin to grab Reiner!” He called out as he exited the dugout. Connie stood up and Eren followed, walking out of the dugout and down the fenceline to the team’s clubhouse, where their lockers were. Once they got in, Eren fell back on the couch and stared up at the ceiling and Connie sat next to him. The silence was nice and comfortable, and although Connie wasn’t really too smart he could read social cues well enough.

The door opened and both boys could momentarily hear the crowd before it shut again. The couch sunk down to Eren’s left. “Sorry Armin, I forgot to tell you, I’ll go grab Reiner,” Connie stood up.

“You can just go back out, Con, we’ll be fine until the end of the game.” Eren’s eyes remained closed as he talked. He heard Connie exit and then he fell to his left and onto Armin.

“Is this too much?” He asked, lightly lifting himself after forgetting about what Armin told him approximately a month ago.

“No, go ahead,” Armin faced Eren and the brunette collapsed into his chest. The position was awkward but it allowed Armin to reach his hands around and re-tie Eren’s hair into it’s regular bun. Then, he shifted so Eren was on top of him and slotted between his legs. 

“Your heart is beating really fast,” Eren’s comment was muffled by Armin’s sweatshirt.

_ ‘Yeah no shit, I just found out I might like you,’  _ “It’s been an exhilarating fifteen minutes, wouldn’t you say?”

“How did he know?” Armin felt Eren balance his chin on his chest, but Armin continued to stare up at the ceiling, playing with the baby hairs on the nape of his neck, “He didn’t, Eren.”

“Then why would he say that?” A sniffle echoed in the room. Thankfully, there was about a half an hour left in the game so they had time to spare.

“Because people are idiots. They make dumb assumptions and he was just doing it to get a rise out of you.” Eren got up and sat back on the couch in a regular position, staring forward with an empty gaze. Armin followed him, sitting so his body was facing Eren.

“It’s my thing. I will tell the world when I’m ready. People shouldn’t say those things,” The adrenaline from fighting coursed through his hands and made his fingertips tingle.

“I know, but that’s how the world works. People suck, and you move on.”

“This is what you went through? Why didn’t you tell anyone? Why didn’t you fight back?” At this, Armin chuckled.

“If I don’t fight back, I’ve already won. Plus, to them it was an insult. To me, it is now a proud fact.” The answer was good enough for Eren, who had began to take off his cleats. Armin watched idly as the boy stood up and walked across the clubhouse, stuffing his cleats into his locker and slipping on his white tennis shoes. His game was done for the night and he knew it. He grabbed a water bottle from the coffee table set in the corner and plopped down next to Armin again, unbuttoning the two top buttons of his jersey and sighing.

“I’m not obvious, am I?”

Daringly, Armin pulled his knees up to his chest and tucked himself into Eren’s side in a similar fashion of how he did when him and Marco talked at the park. He buried himself under Eren’s arm, leaning into Eren and his radiating body heat.

“No, you’re just Eren. Nothing has changed about you, you were born this way so you’ve always acted this way, okay? You are okay.” Armin reassured, “Do you wanna go back out and watch the rest of the game?”

Eren nodded and Armin removed himself from the boy’s side, standing up and offering and hand which his best friend graciously took. Throwing a baseball cap over his hair, he followed behind Armin and they both parted ways as Armin went back to the stands and Eren took his place in the dugout. He was chanting, cheering, high fiving his teammates as if nothing had happened. He didn’t apologize to Fl*ch though, that was where Eren drew the line at his kindness.

“You got magic in those words, Arlert?” Connie and Jean would ask him later that night over pizza. To which, Armin would answer no. But if they had asked Eren, he would’ve said yes. Something about the way Armin does everything, Eren would’ve said, and how it always seemed to stick out more than anyone else in the best way possible. There had always just been something about Armin that Eren could never place his finger on. Maybe one day he would figure it out.


	13. Gay Chicken is a Great Game for People in Denial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SLIGHT NSFW WARNING
> 
> yall can interpret that as you can smh. im trying to reply to as many comments as possible! yall make me so happy :D <3 ive been in a weird place lately (save for the epilogue SMH LMFAO) so yall saying stuff and complimenting me AHH IDK HOW TO EVEN HANDLE IT OR RESPOND BUT THANK YOU GUYS SM JUST KNOW IT GENUINELY MEANS A LOT TO ME okay im done with being a sap lijafhlkjfh okay now onto chapter 13 <333

_ “Eren Kruger Jaeger!” _ The nice moment Eren had with Armin earlier that evening unfortunately couldn’t save him from the wrath of Mrs. Carla Jaeger.

Eren gave a squeak in pain as he bent down helplessly to his mom’s height. She held a death drip on his right ear, sparing a look at his left. He looked at his dad for help across the kitchen who responded with a shrug of the shoulders.  _ “You know the rules, son,” _ Eren could practically hear him say it.

“Look me in the eye and tell me that there wasn’t another solution besides fighting,” Carla’s voice dropped down a deadly level as she looked her son in the eyes. He gulped and gave a nod, attempting to confirm her statement. Her eyes flickered to his untouched left ear and then she began to yank harder on the right, making Eren’s 6’1” stature shrink shorter than her own 5’4” height, “You know your earlobes go red when you lie, now tell me the truth, Eren!” He looked to the ground and sighed, making Carla release her grip and cross her hands over he chest as she began to pace. She turned viciously, threatening her loose side ponytail to fall off her shoulders.

Eventually, she stopped and sighed.

“Listen, I love you very much and I understand that you were just defending yourself. That boy had no right to say any of those words toward you, not that we care who it is you love of course, but still they were bad words that shouldn’t be said at all,” She started, making attempts to calm down while Eren rubbed his poor right ear, “So I’m proud of you for standing up for yourself, but you know how I feel about the violence, Eren. I know its hard to help but we’ve tried to work out ways to go about things that make you mad without resulting in fighting, right?” Eren nodded.

“See? So next time please tell your coach or the umpire, you’re lucky those parents aren’t pressing charges against us,” She sighed, coming up to her son and getting on her tiptoes in order to cradle his head into her chest as if he were still ten years old. “My baby… I love you so so much, y’hear?” Eren nodded again in response and she let go.

“Now go upstairs and do your homework, I’m done now,” She flashed a smile, attitude making a complete 180 turn before she walked back over to Grisha. Eren did as told, running upstairs and bellyflopping on his bed and pulling out his phone to text his friends.

**_The Scouts_ **

**Jean Kirstein: mayb he died lmfaoo**

**Marco Bodt: jean you know that’s not nice :(**

**Jean Kirstein: K**

**Sasha Braus: ereeeeeeeeeeeeeeen what happened**

**Sasha Braus: updates asap**

**Mikasa Jaeger: be quiet I am doing homework**

**Armin Arlert: You can turn off the notifs for the chat by putting it on silent, Mikasa! :D**

**Mikasa Jaeger: oh**

Eren chuckled lightly at his friends’ texts before sending out his own.

**Eren Jaeger: my mom almost tore my ear out omg**

**Connie Springer: oh so shes strong?**

**Eren Jaeger: ?? i mean ig**

**Connie Springer: are milfs allowed to peg**

**Armin Arlert: What? <3**

**Eren Jaeger: shut up**

**Mikasa Jaeger: what the hell connie**

**Sasha Braus: dnt hate him bc he’s right**

**Sasha Braus: condog always spittin str8 fax**

**Connie Springer: yuhhhh**

**Jean Kirstein: ^^ agree mommy milf carla**

**Eren Jaeger: fk off mommas boy go back to your ugly ass vomit looking omelets**

**Jean Kirstein: i will stretch your ass so wide i will wear you as a hat if you talk abt my moms cooking again greasy fucking rat**

With a huff, Eren exited the groupchat that continued to buzz with notifications of pointless chatter and made his way to his messages between him and Armin, seeing a text was sent when he and his mom were talking.

**Armin Arlert: Everything going ok?**

**Eren Jaeger: ye jus was a lil mad @ me but yk how it be**

**Armin Arlert: I’m sure it’s all fine!**

**Eren Jaeger: ty for sticking up for me tn btw i appreciate it**

**Armin Arlert: Of course, you know I’ll always be there for you!**

In front of both screens, less than a mile away from each other, both boy’s cheeks burned bright red. The three little dots at the bottom of the screen made Armin’s heart race, similarly Eren’s fingers trembled as his fingers raced across the keyboard, causing multiple typos that he had to go back and fix. Retype, delete, is that good enough? Does that sound weird? Why should Eren care, it’s just Armin. Eventually, Eren was able to settle on the perfect response after four agonizing minutes:

**Eren Jaeger: ye haha same to u lol**

Eren was convinced that the ‘lol’ softened the text so it didn’t sound like Eren liked Armin or something (which he didn’t, obviously). The poor brunette jumped when his phone began to ring with Armin’s name and contact photo displayed brightly on the phone. 

“Hello?” Eren called into the receiver. On the other end, Armin let out a breath of anxiety. He shouldn’t have called, but he wanted to hear Eren’s voice  _ so bad. _

_ “Uh, hey!” _ Eren heard Armin call back after a few seconds of weird silence,  _ “sorry for calling, but I’m like, super duper bored right now and I just wanted to call for a bit.” _ At this, Eren laughed.

“Yeah, you must be because I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard you say ‘super duper’ before,”

_ “Well now you understand my struggle. Do you think I could walk over and stay for a bit?”  _ Armin mentally smacked himself, why was he inviting himself over? Ugh, it didn’t matter. It was like his second home anyways.

Eren drew back his phone to check the time. The game ended at 5pm and now it was currently 7pm.

“Sure, but my mom and dad didn’t make dinner because they went out during my game.”

_ “I’ll be over in 10.” _

Armin practically skipped out of his house, past Annie and Zofia, and nearly got out the door before his grandpa called for him.

“Arry, you haven’t been home much lately, is everything okay?” Mr. Arlert called from the couch.

“Yes, Papa! I’m only going over to Eren’s!” He called back, pulling his converse on in a rapid hurry. The only thought that raced through his mind was Eren and how badly he longed to be in the Jaeger household, mostly Eren’s bedroom.

“Ok, are you staying over? It’s a school night!”

Armin pondered. He had two tests today, so no homework in those classes, and he got the rest done in the stands at the beginning of Eren’s game. That meant no studying, which meant that he had a free night. And, if he stayed over, that means he would have to wear Eren’s clothes the following day.

“Uh- yes!” Was the last thing Armin called over his shoulder before he began the familiar walk to Eren’s house.

When Eren heard the doorbell go off, he froze. He checked his reflection once again, making sure his hair looked good. Surveying his room, it was tidy but looked effortless and Eren was also wearing his favorite pair of grey sweatpants and a loose black t-shirt. If anything, he looked damn good. His conscience was telling him to dress up and impress Armin, but as for why, it wasn’t too clear. His footsteps banged loudly against the wood stairs as he bounded to the front door, opening it to reveal his best friend. Armin’s hair had begun to grow out slightly as the back half of it was half-hazardly tossed into a messy bun. The green sweatshirt that adorned him made him look small, along with the black basketball shorts and wornout converse.

“Uh...hey?” Eren breathed, bringing his eyes back up to Armin’s.

“Hey…” Armin was glad he didn’t get caught checking Eren out, either. “Is all of your homework done?”

No, of course it wasn’t. “Yes.”

“Ok cool, wanna like, play some video games?” God this was weird. This was so weird.

“Yeah, sure.” At this point, Eren realized that he hadn’t let Armin in, so he moved and motioned for Armin to follow him to his room. From the living room, all three Jaegers watched the terrible interaction unfold. As soon as the two boys disappeared from earshot, Mikasa turned to both her parents. “See, I told you? Ever since that stupid project they’ve been acting weird with each other. Since when do they fight? Since when do they dress up for each other to come over?”

Carla laughed with Grisha, patting his leg. “Y’know, Kasa, me and your mom have had this ongoing bet since they were both little!” Mikasa rolled her eyes. Her parents bet each other on  _ everything _ , “When Eren came home and told us he almost wanted to marry a boy? Oh god- and then we saw them together!” Carla’s eyes were glazed over with something that seemed like nostalgia. “It’s $20 bucks to me if Eren makes the first move and if it’s Armin then it goes to your dad.” Mikasa gasped.

“You really think Armin would?” She asked her father incredulously.

Grisha sat up from the couch in a serious position, hunching over to rest his forearms on the tops of his thighs as his hands laid gently collapsed together, “Both of you are fools to think that Eren would ever have the nerve to confront his feelings to someone like Armin. Eren will always think it’s a sort of platonic, friendship love and Armin is simply too intelligent to do that. I rest my case,” he threw his hands up and fell back against the couch, re-wrapping his arm around Carla. Mikasa nodded thoughtfully before piping up, “I want in. $20 to me from each of you if they end up ‘getting it on’ before anything happens.”

“Well that’s a deal I’m willing to make!” Her dad reached forward and shook her hand as the both of them laughed. Carla gasped and lightly slapped her husband’s shoulder, “Grisha Jaeger! Our boy is not having sex!”

“Exactly, that’s why Kasa is gonna lose,” he laughed heartily, turning his attention back to the TV in front of them. Mikasa shook her head,  _ just you wait. _

-

“Ok, un-fucking-fair, my controller is broken,” Eren fell back against the headboard in exasperation. This was the ninth time in a row that Armin was able to 360-no scope Eren, once again winning their trickshot contest.

“Can’t help perfection,” Armin jested, digging his finger into Eren’s side before returning it to his controller so his character could T-Bag Eren’s lifeless one. The brunette groaned and laughed, slapping the controller out of Armin’s hand, “Come on! Don’t rub it in, that just makes it worse!”

Luckily the atmosphere had slowly begun to get comfy as the two boys continued to hang out in each other’s presence, neither being aware of what brought about the awkwardness in the first place.

“Can we play GTA now? I’m bored of winning,” Armin suggested, reaching forward to switch out the discs without waiting for Eren’s reply. The loading screen of a woman in a revealing bikini popped up and stayed there as two waited.

“She’s hot,” Eren said simply.

“As if you’d ever be able to rack her in,” Armin snickered to himself, but Eren was still able to hear.

“Hello? I racked you in.” Eren shot back without thinking. Eren decided maybe he should think more often before he spoke. 

Armin’s head whipped around to look at his best friend, “We have never done anything!”

Eren threw his head back and laughed, shoulders shaking up and down as Armin glared at him with a stare that could kill, “We’ve literally made out twice,” Eren said through huffs. 

“That doesn’t count!” Armin squeaked back as he felt a blush approaching his cheeks. Why did Eren have to bring this up? Why did he have to talk about such scandelous things while looking  _ that _ good in his stupid black shirt and grey sweatpants that Armin could  _ definitely _ see his print through and-

“Yes it does! You literally want me so bad, it’s embarrassing!” Eren joked, hitting his own shoulder with Armin’s. 

“As if. You wish you had this sexy piece of ass; you sure you weren’t jealous when I was dating Marco?”

The blonde was pretty notorious for going extraneous lengths in order to win anything. If there’s anything that Armin hated, it was losing. He loved being #1 in any challenge that faced him which easily made fuel for his obnoxious study habits and such. So, Armin really did pull out this comeback with the vile intent to shut Eren up, but then he was knocked on his back. A weight hovered over his body and Eren’s cinnamon musk infiltrated Armin’s nostrils. The brunette’s breath, still smelling like mint toothpaste as per usual, ghosted over Armin’s cheeks as the blonde racked his brain to comprehend what just happened. Oh- Eren just pinned him down to his bed. Great.

The brunette crossed Armin’s wrists over each other, holding them down with his left hand as his right slowly moved down to gently caress at Armin’s hip bone. Eren straddled him, angling his calves so they kept Armin’s legs flush against the comforter. For the first time in his life, Armin was rendered speechless by the acts of his best friend. Eren had done dumb things, said dumb things, but Armin always had an answer or comeback, but it felt refresihng to Eren when his deep blue eyes searched Eren’s emerald ones for some sort of answer. The brunette, who had to reassure himself half-hazardly that he was definitely only doing this to get a rise out of Armin, leaned down into the crevice of the other boy’s neck, blowing a soft breath against the bite mark that was currently caked in Mikasa’s concealer from the morning. Against his own will, Armin’s dick controlled his body as he slightly tilted his head to the side, opening his neck so Eren had more access. The cold air against his neck made shivers run up and down his body.

The next time Armin felt anything happen, Eren’s breath was hot against the shell of his ear.

“And if I was?” The breath disappeared as soon as it came, but Armin jolted when he felt a foreign tongue tracing the outline of said-bitemark. A terrible, cracked moan lowly left Armin’s mouth as he tried to conceal it.

“What you do about that,  _ Armin _ ?” Eren dug his nose into the crevice in where he had previously licked, nuzzling against the skin. Armin stuttered helplessly as his mind was running too fast to comprehend anything. Oh god, they were in Eren’s bed and he just licked his neck. Their position was so erotic. Eren was unpredictable- what was bound to happen? A chuckle pulled Armin away from his thoughts, realizing the sound came because Armin was subconsciously lifting his hips in an attempt to gain friction.

“You’re so desperate for me, are you sure I didn’t rack you in?” Eren muttered directly against Armin’s neck. The hair falling out from his manbun tickled Armin’s neck as he saw this as an “it’s okay if you try to dryhump me bro, it’s the vibes” but the blonde was too late. Eren was already taking his other hand and fully clutching onto Armin’s hip and keeping it still as the brunette slowly dragged their pelvises together. With nothing to cover his mouth, Armin tried his best to conceal the quiet,  _ “Oh god,” _ that escaped his mouth. The hips left quickly after, and so did all of Eren’s weight. Regaining his senses from his horny-bliss, he could pick out Eren’s laughing.

“Oh jesus Armin, I didn’t actually known I gave you a boner!” Armin looked down, and there it was, a huge tent in his black basketball shorts. In a rush, he threw the end of his sweatshirt over it and moved to slap Eren’s shoulder to which the brunette winced.

“What the hell was that! You expect me to not get one?!”

“Have you never played gay chicken? I mean- I guess I lost, but you just scared me!” Eren’s laughs continued to fill the room and the blush remained on Armin’s cheeks, steadily growing heavier as Eren’s laughter ceased to stop.

“I was just trying to prove my point that I could  _ totally  _ rack you in- which I did!” He chanted victoriously, resituating himself in a sitting position next to Armin so they could continue to play Grand Theft Auto.

“You know where the bathroom is if you need to go take care of that?”

Armin groaned internally. His boner was already long gone, but the embarrassment remained. What the hell. Armin knew that he wasn’t exactly making it to the pearly white gates above, but he didn’t know what he did for God to curse him like  _ that _ . If Armin knew that making voodoo dolls with the hairs of your enemies led to getting it on with the person you just realized you like only for them to be ‘joking about it’, he would have never created a six-step plan in the fourth grade on how to cut off a sufficient amount of hair off of someone without them noticing because  _ shit _ , the agony coursing through his body was terrible.

“You got so into it- maybe you like me! Imagine- actually don’t. That would be so weird if we dated, dude.”

“Yeah,” Armin laughed emptily, grabbing his controller and holding it loosely as he watched Eren run pedestrians over on the screen. The brunette chased after a pregnant character who yelled at his own about his terrible driving, resulting in her death by flamethrower. The poor blonde was so distracted by his friend’s statement that he put his controller down again, completely forgetting that GTA was a singleplayer game. “It would be totally weird if we dated..” He agreed with no truth behind the statement, watching Eren crash cars he stole. The blonde was lucky enough to take all his anger out on any pedestrian that came near his character a few minutes later, ramming planes into streets and leaving hookers in cars on the train tracks. Even as his virtual reign of terror continued, one single though echoed through his head.

It was just a joke and Eren was right, it  _ would _ be weird if they dated- wouldn’t it?


	14. Connie is Great at Social Cues so he can Smell Sexual Tension

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SLIGHT NSFW WARNING!!
> 
> here's a quick lil filler chapter/progression chapter to set up for the next one :D it's not too shabby i hope yall like more genuine eremin content bc we all know that this is relationship is being dragged out so goddamn slow LMFAAOOO anyways thank you guys for 4000 reads and 300 kudos!!!! at the epilogue i will write a full thing on why i wrote this fic but all yall need to know rn is that this was a complete whim that i didn't expect to get this far omg. anyways thank you all so so much and here is chapter 14! <3

“Armin? Armin…?” The blonde grumbled, feeling a hand on his waist, shaking his body back and fourth. As he woke up, the blonde became aware of his body’s position, entangled with Eren’s as they had both fell asleep cuddling (Eren’s idea).

“Eren? What’s wrong?” The blonde couldn’t make out much in the dark, but could feel a wetness soak the front of his hoodie when Eren pushed his head into Armin’s chest. “E? What- why are you crying?” The brunette, a big gentle giant, just continued to nuzzle his head into Armin’s chest. He got the message and sighed, bringing his free hand around Eren’s head and putting it to the back, stroking the soft brown locks with familiarity. The other boy’s arm came around Armin’s waist, clinging onto the sweatshirt and small sobs were muffled by Armin’s chest. After a few minutes, Armin removed his hand from Eren’s hair to reach behind him in search of his phone. Eventually, he grabbed it and opened it, hissing at the sudden bright light that was emitted.

**_2:13am_ **

The numbers read out angrily at the blonde, who just sighed and threw his phone back in its previous position, not caring enough to put it on the charger. “Tell me what’s wrong, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

Eren sobs became less and less until he eventually pulled his head away for Armin to hear him clearly.

“They fo.. Someone told them..” The poor boy couldn’t finish before sniffling again.

Armin came forward and took place as the little spoon, wrapping his arm around Eren’s middle and tucking himself under the boy’s arm. Eren welcomed Armin’s presence, clutching his arm around the boy’s smaller frame protectively.

“Someone told them I...didn’t only like girls… and they kicked me out, Armin. They all hated me, even you,” He whispered, rubbing his hand up and down Armin’s back. Despite how good it felt, Armin couldn’t tell if Eren did that for himself or for Armin. Dare he say it, it was a little fucked up. Armin felt bad for being more focused on being in Eren’s arms rather than why he was crying. He willed his romantic thoughts away, turning to the present. He lifted his head and looked at Eren, both faces within the same distance they were just hours prior. The atmosphere was soft like fresh snow, a small safe haven for only them.

“Eren,” Armin whispered to him gently, a smile playing on his face. Through the dark, Eren could see it, “I could never hate you. Especially if you like guys,” Eren winced at the vocalization, “I still couldn’t hate you- that means I would have to hate myself too and it’s sin to hate God’s favorite.”

“You don’t even like God.”

“Besides the point,” Armin rolled his eyes, “It was just a dream. I love you, so do your parents, Mikasa, our friends...that type of thing is unrealistic. Think rationally.” Pretty bold of Armin to assume that Eren could think, period. Anywho, it did help Eren calm down, and Armin could feel the taller boy push Armin’s head flush against his chest and he desperately hoped Eren couldn’t feel the way his heart skipped a few beats. “Ok, you’re right, thank you. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” And that was how they woke up the next morning for school, Armin tucked against Eren’s chest and Eren’s face buried in Armin’s hair. Their legs were entangled and Armin had a hard clambering out of Eren’s embrace at the brisk hour of 6:14am. He climbed out of the bed and went downstairs, not surprised to see Grisha at the dining table and Carla standing against the kitchen counters with a coffee cup in hand. 

“Morning, son,” Grisha nodded towards the blonde to which he replied with a meek smile and wave as he made his way to the coffee pot, not quite ready to talk to anyone yet since he had rolled out of bed less than five minutes ago. 

“Ah! My other boy, good morning sunshine!” The blonde boy thought it was funny how, now after summer, Carla had to lightly stand on her toes in order to pat Armin’s head and ruffle his hair. Prior to the summer, he was nearly two inches shorter than her, oh how time flies. He hummed at the contact, leaning into her hand before she removed it to hug him. “It feels like it’s been so long since we’ve had morning coffee together! Go grab a chair next to Grisha and I’ll grab you a cup.”

Eren awoke to laughter coming from downstairs and an empty spot next to him. The pillow felt cold and he reached behind him to his nightstand, seeing that it was around 6:40. After stretching, he lazily padded downstairs with a foggy brain. He saw his family and Armin sitting at the dining table, sipping their coffee and whatnot. Eren made his way to the fridge and grabbed a chocolate protein shake before taking a seat next to Armin, putting his drink on the table, and slumping over against his friend.

“Is this okay?” Eren mumbled quietly into his shoulder, only to be heard within Armin’s earshot. He heard an affirmative ‘mhm’ before letting the full weight of his head lay against Armin.

“Good morning to you, too,” Carla chuckled, “When’s the last time you showered, Eren? You look greasy,” Eren groaned. The last time he had washed his hair was a day and a half ago, it wasn’t his fault it got oily quickly. “And brush it, too. It looks like a bird’s nest,” Another groan from Eren.

“Car, stop badgering the poor boy, he just woke up,” Grisha didn’t look up from his newspaper while he said it, taking a leisure sip of coffee. Eren felt a tender hand come up to stroke the back of his hair near his nape, making tingles run down his spine as Armin gently picked apart the tangles that were created through the night. The next twenty minutes passed by with slow conversation that went through Eren’s right ear and directly out the left, he was to preoccupied with enjoying the feeling of having Armin’s long, thin fingers stroke through his long hair and staring at Mikasa’s terrible new case of bedhead that came as a gift with her new haircut. Both boys quietly sipped their drinks until they were finished and Armin lightly tapped Eren’s shoulder. 

“It’s seven o’clock, are you going to shower first or me?” Eren always let Armin shower first, so that’s exactly what happened. Eren picked out his day’s outfit (today, Eren went for a classic black-hoodie-under-a-white-shirt combo, black jeans, and vans; if anything, Eren needed a mop because he had so much drip on him) as he waited for Armin to finish. He heard the water shut off and the door open, light footsteps creeping their way towards Eren’s door in a hurry until his bedroom door quickly opened and closed with Armin leaning his back against it. His hair dripped with fresh water and so did the rest of his body, which Eren came to find as he examined the site in front of him. With only a towel to cover his decency, droplets adorned his milky skin and holy  _ shit- _

“When did you get abs?” Oh fuck, Eren said that outloud, but Armin laughed.

“Uh- Annie likes to go to this boxing club. I went sometimes- listen, I forgot my clothes in here so I need to change in here, the bathroom is open.” He said quickly, shuffling over next to Eren and throwing the corner of the duvet off where a pile of Eren’s smaller clothes lay. Despite being told to go shower, the brunette couldn’t help and observe his friend and the way his shirtless body flexed.

He obviously wasn’t attracted to Armin or anything but hot  _ damn _ Eren couldn’t let those secret muscles go unnoticed.

“Wanna take a picture or something?” He heard Armin mumble, making Eren quickly halt his eyes from further wandering. The blonde turned to him with an unimpressed look. “Eren, I need to use my towel to dry my hair before I put my clothes on, can you go shower now?” He stayed glued to his spot on the bed, thinking about how only a single article of fabric separated Armin’s completely nude body from his eyesight. 

“I- uh, I mean,” Eren stuttered, but Armin took note that he was still frozen in place. An idea slithered its way into Armin’s thought process, making the blonde smirk sinisterly as Eren continued to stutter and look for words. Picking up where Eren left him the night prior, he lightly gripped the towel so it stayed in place as it drooped slightly when he made his way to stand between Eren’s legs. The elder boy’s eyes went wide as Armin leaned in closer, making Eren crane his neck back as him and Armin became within range of feeling each other’s breath on both their faces.

“Are you...flustered?” He leaned forward, curling in on himself and putting all of his weight against Eren. In a blurry haze and in order to keep the blonde from slipping on the wood floor, Eren wrapped both his arms around Armin’s wet body. Leaning up from where his head was tucked into Eren’s chest, he tilted his head upwards which made him eye-to-eye with the middle of Eren’s neck. The brunette simply stared down at Armin with the same wide eyes. Like he did at the party, the blonde stuck his tongue out and gave kitten licks at the base of his friend’s neck, not missing the way Eren’s body shuddered beneath his. After a minute of licking gently, slowly, dragging his tongue lightly against the other’s neck just to tease, Armin let his head up.

“Did you want to see me without my towel, Eren?” The younger purred, standing on his tiptoes to nip at the bottom of Eren’s ear.

“ _ Armin…” _ The brunette breathed out heavily, almost like a growl. Armin’s own legs quivered at the possessive noise, but he kept his composure as he was determined to win. Taking the hand that wasn’t holding his towel up, he took to fingers and lightly dragged the pads of his fingers along Eren’s print in his sweatpants. Armin hoped what he was feeling was the cause of his own doing and not morning wood. Finally, the blonde pulled away when he felt Eren’s fingers begin to toy with the backside of his towel, trying to creep his fingers beneath the fabric. The blonde did a quick spin-move out of his arms, grabbing his clothes and smiling.

“W-What?” Eren’s pupils were blown out in lust, his boner obvious.

“I hope you can hide that,” Armin pointed and  _ giggled _ , “Gay chicken, remember? I lost, but I got you back for that boner,” now the giggling had escalated into full blown laughter, Armin threw his free hand over his stomach at a weak attempt to aid the small ache that accompanied the action. Eren could hear the cackling as he quickly spedwalk down the hall, slamming the door with bright red cheeks and a  _ huge _ problem he had to take care of.

-

“Hey, anyone else notice the weird sexual tension at the table?” Connie piped up. Reiner shot his hands around Falco’s ears, who just wriggled out of his grip and paid attention hastily. 

“No, Hissy and I literally fucked last night,” Ymir played the yawn-and-throw-arm-over-shoulder trick, which was batted away by poor Historia who was redder than a stop sign.

“No, Condog, I see where you’re getting at,” Sasha said through piles of food. Her eyes followed Connie’s, who’s gaze laid upon Armin, who’s gaze laid upon Eren, who’s gaze also laid upon Armin.

“Wait- actually yeah, are you guys trying to eyefuck eachother right now? What’s going on?” Jean whispered, trying not to wake Marco who had fallen asleep on his shoulder five minutes into lunch, the poor guy had pulled an all-nighter trying to salvage a group project. The statement was too quiet to hear though, because Armin and Eren held their intense gaze. It wasn’t a staring contest either, Zofia had whispered to Udo and Gabi, because she saw that both boys were actively blinking.

“Hey, brotherfucker, what’s up with them?” Sasha nudged Mikasa, who was trying to have a conversation with Annie. A hand shot up and slapped the sandwich out of Sasha’s hand, making her cry out in pain as she attempted to save some of the food. “Call me that again and you’re dead meat,” The senior glowered at Sasha, who pathetically scrambled across the floor looking for scraps that hadn’t been tainted by the disgusting cafeteria floor. The interaction caused both boys to jump out of their seemingly hypnotized state, looking at the two girls in confusion.

“Huh?”

“Is there something you both aren’t telling us?” Armin looked at Connie with a confused look.

“You and Eren have been uh...staring at each other all lunch,” Bertholdt said, not looking up from the homework he was desperately trying to copy down during the last five minutes of their eating period.

“Oh uh-” Eren stuttered helplessly.

“We were having a staring contest!” Armin said officially, only to be met with the three kids who had already taken note that there definitely was no staring contest going on. Before Udo could say how many times he counted Armin blink, the lunch bell rang signalling for their next class.

_ Saved by the bell, _ Armin thought as he shot a last look to Eren before taking off to his fifth period. He definitely didn’t want to explain to his friends that he spent the entire lunch staring at Eren because he was imagining all of the ways Eren and him could entertain themselves by indulging in BDSM experimentation- and thankfully he didn’t have to. Armin slouched in his desk until the late bell rang once he arrived in class, rubbing his face over with his hands before pulling out his notebook and an assortment of fancy highlighters and trying not to rub his pants in at any sort of angle that could increase the unnoticable semi he sported.

Even if ‘gay chicken’ was all Armin would ever get from the other boy, it seemed like a good plan for now, because Armin recognized that he was becoming completely enamoured with the beautiful brunette and would take him in any way he could get him.


	15. #supportivejaegerparents

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW WARNING!!
> 
> aw the time is finally here for our baby eren to mature into a man :') also can i just say how i love to hc carla & grisha as the best parents in the world. like seriously, grisha loved eren sm and yall cant tell me differently, just trust me. aNyways this chapt somewhat marks the end of all the serious writing ive been doing, seriously i forget this was supposed to be a crack fic sometimes LMFAOOO. alrighty yall, onto chapter 15!!
> 
> ALSO IMPORTANT!!! chapter dedication to @gracefalls, @razor_the_ninja, @jiminschancla, @kaydensquareass, and @HOes_mad :DD i hope i got all of those right. thank you guys for all your comments!! you're all always so nice <3

That was how Armin and Eren’s days continued, unfortunately.

Of course Eren, the more daring of the two, started it originally. The next day at lunch, he discreetly put his hand on the inside of Armin’s thigh as they listened to the kids ramble on about how terrible reading Shakespeare was. Udo was arguing with Bertholdt about Romeo and Juliet when his thumb began to move in small circles, making Armin draw in a huge breath.

“Hey, you good?” Reiner would ask the red-faced boy. He just nodded, unsure if a moan would replace an actual response if he _did_ open his mouth to say something. 

“You lost,” Eren would whisper in his ear once Armin delicately removed Eren’s hand, attempting to eat his salad in peace.

The next time it happened, Armin was determined to get him back. Carla was trying out a new recipe for snickerdoodles, so Armin and Eren sat in the kitchen hungrily awaiting to taste-test the batch. Something about teaching kids on a Monday riled up quite the appetite within Armin while Eren had just conditioned his lunch away at baseball practice, so both boys pounced on the plate of cookies. Carla left the room to use the restroom, telling both boys to give their opinion when she came back. Eren’s mouth was wide and ghosting over the delicious treat to take a bite when he heard a sultry, “ _Mhmm, oh god.._ ” from across the table, followed by chewing sounds. Eren dropped his cookie on the table and looked at Armin, mouth still wide open from anticipating a bite from the treat. The blonde, knowing his effect already, had his eyes closed in pure bliss and looked nearly orgasmic as he slowly chewed. He peeked an eye open, glancing at Eren before chuckling and continuing to finish his cookie.

Later that night, they would bring the leftover cookies to Eren’s room while playing Mario Kart. Armin would sit and wiggle around in the brunette’s lap and eat the cookies in the same seductive way from earlier, causing little Eren to become a Big Eren and result in Armin being literally thrown off Eren’s lap. “You lose!” Armin would snicker as his character (Toad, obviously), crossed the finish line first. Eren rolled his eyes.

And now back to current time, the Friday before school let out for Thanksgiving break and the seventh time they were going to play an impromptu round of Gay Chicken. The author promises this honestly wasn’t intended to be in the storyline but unfortunately, it just happened like that.

Armin was uncharacteristically wearing all black, a large hoodie lazily draped across his figure to replace the usual done up outfits that Zofia picked for him. The hoodie, branded with the Thrasher logo (Armin didn’t even skate, damn poser), reached midthigh which Eren realized perfectly covered Armin’s front and backside successfully. So, that’s how Eren’s hand had made its way back onto the inside of Armin’s thigh, but this time Eren’s thumb didn’t circle. It began to slowly drag itself upwards. 

Change wasn’t seen in Armin’s face as he talked with Sasha enthusiastically about the new seafood place they both wanted to go downtown and try, but his attempts at conversation began to get hazy as his hormones hit him like a wave. Still, he powered through the conversation until Sasha turned away from him to talk to Jean and Marco about something, Armin didn’t really pay attention because _holy fuck Eren was palming him through his jeans and he was getting hard._

Feigning a yawn, he slumped against Eren’s shoulder and pulled his hood up, announcing his nap until the end of lunch flawlessly. The rest of the group just nodded and continued conversation, promising to wake up him once the bell rung in approximately fifteen minutes. Eren, frankly, was extremely lost so he began to rub harder at Armin’s growing hard-on and then he felt it. A small mouth biting into his shoulder lightly and the vibration of a small moan. _Oh_. Maybe if Eren had more than two brain cells he would’ve noticed the nap cover story earlier. Seeing that Armin wasn’t giving up and not wanting to lose two Chicken games in a row, Eren slipped his hand past the jeans and on top of Armin’s dick in his underwear. A bead of nervous sweat began to form its way along Eren’s hairline.

Oh Jesus, he had never gone this far with anyone before...let alone a _guy_.

But Eren hated to lose.

But oh _God_ he was literally touching another guy’s dick right now. Oh God, oh fuck, what does this mean. Eren was definitely _not_ born to give out handjobs under a lunch table, what if someone saw, what if they got caught? Armin noticed the subtle stop of the hand’s motion before it continued again, gripping him roughly through the fabric because Eren decided that he _was okay with touching another guy and he refused to lose._

 _‘I have a dick, I can do this, right? What do I like?’_ And those thoughts motivated Eren as he started to slowly pump Armin and he felt Armin’s teeth clamp down harder on his shoulder, the fabric of his shirt beginning to get wet from his saliva. Eren felt the vibrations of moans and whimpers through his shirt, making his own dick begin to spring to life, but he focused on Armin. 

Eren was _determined_ to make Armin cum.

Wait- what? Scratch that, Eren shook his head physically and then stopped in case anyone from the table saw him. He was _not_ doing this because he wanted to make Armin cum, he was doing this because he wanted to _win_ , right? Yeah, totally, he wanted to win. So therefore, his motions got rougher, rubbing his thumb over the head in a similar fashion of how he would do to himself. Armin’s arms slithered around the one Eren had down his pants, snuggling into it as if he was actually sleeping but no- he was actually trying to signal something. Eren felt a delicate finger shakily tapping against his bicep but he paid no attention. If Armin wanted him to stop, he would’ve already plucked Eren’s hand away- wait, did Armin not want to stop until he…?

Armin continued to tap against his arm, now more frantic as he felt his body nearing his edge. It had been a while since he relieved himself and the last time he was with another person was with Marco back in September, so it was fairly easy for Eren to bring him to his end. Armin continued to tap the same pattern, again and again, but Eren kept up. In a rush, he tapped it out one last time as he felt the knot in his stomach edging to unravel.

**_.. .----. -- / --. --- .. -. --. / - --- / -.-. ..- -- .-.-.-_ **

_‘Oh shit!’_ Armin mentally screamed as his body silently shook, his fingers gripping Eren’s arm hard enough to leave nail marks and his teeth sinking deeper into the fabric of his friend’s shirt, _‘Eren doesn’t know morse code!’_

It was the last racing thought Armin had before his brain became mush, melting into Eren’s side and trying to conceal his orgasm from the public eye. Eren felt a moistness pump out where Armin’s tip lay under the fabric of his underwear. He slid his finger over it, causing some to build up on the tip of his finger and eliciting a silent ‘meep!’ from Armin before he slid his hand out and put it on the top of Armin’s thigh, taking a napkin and wiping his hand down. Well, that was eventful.

-

When Armin came out of the marine biology club alone, Eren was greeted with a slap to the face.

“Aye yai yai!” Eren groaned, rubbing his face and looking down at Armin’s red face, “What was that for?!”

“You-you!” Armin shook with anger and embarrassment, balling his fists at his sides, “You made me-!”

“Ugh, this is what that’s about? Dude, tie game, I didn’t even touch your actual dick, it’s not that deep,” Eren rolled his eyes, turning on his heel to start walking home. Armin gaped at his back before running and standing in front of him, preventing the Jaeger from continuing his trek. 

“What do you mean, Eren?! You-” Armin glanced around and leaned in to whisper, “you gave me a handjob! Under the lunch table! In public!” Eren shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

“Ok, and? It’s just a game, it doesn’t mean anything.” Armin rolled his eyes and threw his hands up, questioning why the higher powers had put him in such a situation. All the moving he was doing was chafing, too, especially since he was still in his soiled boxers.

“I literally cannot believe you!” Armin accused, hands behind his head and looking exasperatedly at Eren, “What do I need to say to get it through your thick skull that you don’t just jack off your friend on the casual?”

“Nothing, because now we jerk each other off on the casual, I guess,” Armin’s eyes went wide. Eren, you fucking dumbass, that is no where near where Armin wanted to get.

“No- no we don’t! Boyfriends do that, Eren!” 

“Is this about that whole talk we had a while ago about boundaries? I just figured you wanted me to keep going, you didn’t make any motion for me to stop like usual-”

“ _Because I wanted you to touch me!”_ Armin whisper-yelled, now pacing. Jesus, good thing not a lot of people were left at school because this would be an embarrassing thing to be caught with.

“Well, yeah duh I figured that’s why I kept going, why is there a problem? I mean, we can probably do that stuff now since you and Marco are completely broken up-” Eren tried to hide a smile but was distracted when Armin suddenly grabbed his face roughly, squishing his cheeks together and forcing them to make eye contact. Eren’s head was uncomfortably dragged down to Armin’s height and it made Eren’s sore muscles ache from post-practice.

“Eren.” Armin looked serious, furrowing his eyebrows and searching Eren’s eyes. “Do. You. Like. Me.”

“What? Why are you aski-”

“Oh fuck it, whatever, Levi you son of a bitch,” Armin muttered and Eren’s head spun. Why was Armin bringing up Levi? What did he have to do with thi- oh my god Armin was kissing him. 

Both sober and completely in the right state of mind, they were kissing. In the school yard, where anyone can walk past. Armin’s lips were soft against Eren’s chapped lips, literally Armin mentally compared them to the Sahara Desert. Armin pulled away, brows still furrowed and hands still gripping Eren’s face. Eren blinked. 

Once.

Twice.

“What?”

Armin just groaned, shoving Eren’s face away and making the taller boy stumble back at the sudden strength in Armin’s small body. “Whatever, this is useless, let’s go home.”

Eren reached forward, grabbing Armin’s hand and yanking him back, “No, Armin! What does that mean?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore, let’s go,” He desperately tried to pull his hand away but to no avail.

“Ar, you once told me that you can’t help me if I didn’t talk to you and it goes both ways, what did that mean? You can’t be mad at me for something I can’t understand.”

“I’m not mad at you, Eren!” The blonde exclaimed exasperatedly, finally ripping his hand away from Eren’s grip, “I’m mad at myself.” He muttered, tightening the straps on his backpack.

“Why can’t you tell me?”

“Eren, just trust me on this,” Armin sighed, pinching his nose. Eren hated when he did that, “Nevermind. I’m going to my house. I’ll see you after break.” He began walking away, leaving the clueless brunette in the dust. 

“Armin! You still have to come to Thanksgiving!” He called after him. Armin didn’t reply.

-

That was the first time Armin hadn’t come over to Eren’s house the Friday after Thanksgiving in eleven years. 

“You boys have been fighting recently, hm?” Carla would ask Eren that night, dipping down next to him as he lied on his bed. He just nodded.

She sat against his headboard, pulling his head into her chest and stroking his hair like she used to when he was little. Eren curled up in a fetal position and just listened.

“What happened, Er?”

Eren sighed. Was it time? Yes, it was.

“Mom, I don’t...only like girls,” He whispered faintly against her chest. He hoped his loud, racing heartbeat would drown out his voice. Surprise, surprise, it didn’t.

Carla gave a small chuckle and continued petting his head, taking her other hand and beginning to rub his back. _‘Always my little boy…’_ She cooed affectionately to herself before speaking.

“So you like guys and girls?”

Eren stayed silent.

“You only like guys?” A soft nod against her chest.

“You’re gay?” She felt his body stiffen.

 _Gay._ It still felt like a bad word to him. Granted, it was. Growing up, it was the hot insult among his peers. Gay meant bad and that was that, and frankly Eren never wanted to be the bad thing that all these kids were talking about. Albeit, as he grew up and became more educated, Eren realized it was stupid to hate someone for loving someone else by time he was seven but his small, impressionable childbrain couldn’t help but keep that word near the ‘things you can’t be in order to protect yourself’ file. It still developed that way as he became a teenager, and obviously stayed that way at his current age. He was always proud of himself for consistently getting better. He asked out that Halloween Store employee Willy, he told his friends (drunkenly, but they approached him afterwards that morning about it), and nothing too bad had happened except the baseball game. But, throughout all this time, Eren still never classified himself as... _that_ because he still feared it. A simple three-letter word and he couldn’t get over it. 

Seeing his mom’s gentle reaction though, and feeling her soft, delicate hands running through his hair just like old times made something click in his brain. She hadn’t shoved him off. She hadn’t yelled at him for being a faggot like his nightmares had previously anticipated. No, she was sitting there and stroking his hair because he was her son and she promised on the day he was born that she would love him unconditionally unless he committed an unforgivable crime. At this, he smiled. He could feel her fingers, touch delicate despite age beginning to wear them down. They were soft from lotion and she still smelled like vanilla extract. So, in a bout of courage, Eren swallowed and faced his fear. He looked up from Carla’s chest and directly into her identical aquamarine eyes, tears pooling and threatening to spill.

Carla gave a small smile. Her baby.

“Mom,” his voice cracked and the first tear fell, “I’m gay.” The rest came down. He sobbed and sobbed, his body shaking and he coughed and sputtered when he tried to regain his breath. He tucked his head back into her chest, but she leaned down into his hair and gave the top of his head light kisses of reassurance. Always such a momma’s boy, she mused. He heard her kind words through his tears and sniffles, _‘We all love you so much, Eren’ ‘I have loved you since the moment I laid my eyes on you’ ‘You and your sister are the best thing to ever happen to me’ ‘I’m so proud of you’._

Once he had calmed down, she sat up and got him a cool rag to drape over his red, puffy eyes, not pushing for any information. She knew that Eren was worn out. He laid down, feeling like a kid with a fever, and felt a gentle kiss on his forehead.

“I’m so proud of you, Eren, and I love you. You can tell Dad when you are ready, but he loves you just as much as me. I need to start dinner, but you rest, baby boy.” She gave his head a quick pat before exiting the room and starting dinner, a huge smile on her face. Eren opening up to her in such a vulnerable way told her that she was doing something right with her parenting and she swelled with pride at how fast he was growing up. 

Later that night after dinner, Eren took his dad to the front porch. Carla and Mikasa waited in the living room, watching TV and stomachs churning with anticipation. Carla leaned back on the couch to look through the living room window, only to see her son standing up and falling into the embrace of Grisha, who patted his son’s back and rubbed it. She saw his shoulders shake once before his arms wrapped around his father, head dipping down onto his shoulder. They both pulled away and Grisha gripped Eren’s shoulders, looking his son in the eye.

“Eren Jaeger, you are my son and you were born into this world for a reason,” Grisha Jaeger said outside, gripping his son’s shoulders while looking into his teary eyes. Just like Carla, the father thought.

“I love you with every kink and quirk you come with, and I am so proud to call you my son, regardless of who you decide to love,” he pulled his son back into him, hugging the life out of the teen. Grisha could feel his own tears welling up as he heard a soft voice croak, “I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, Eren.”

Family movie night was spent with all three Jaegers surrounded Eren around the couch, making him feel accepted and loved while they watched _Mulan_. Mikasa cuddled into Eren’s side with her arms wrapped around his torso, his own arm around her shoulders, as his mom and dad sat on the opposite side like they always did. The chains of social norm that Eren constantly felt around his body had disappeared, and he said it to himself mentally during the movie randomly.

_‘I am gay.’_

-

Unfortunately, the sweet party of celebrating Eren’s sexuality was short lasting as school came back around the corner, because it still didn’t solve the little feud he and Armin were having. That Monday at school, Eren walked to his classes with a newfound swagger that deflated like a balloon when he saw Armin in the cafeteria. He hadn’t seen him when he and Mikasa picked up Annie and Zofia, saying that Hanji picked Armin up to grab breakfast with them and Moblit. Eren’s blood boiled with jealousy but it wasn’t enough to dull his mood. Yet, seeing how quickly Armin looked away once they made eye contact was enough to quickly ruin his day.

He still wasn’t really sure of what he did, but it still hurt. He knew Armin was mad at himself and frankly there was nothing he could do to help it, but he still longed to support his friend in any whatever trivial matter he was putting himself through. 

“Hey!” yelled Reiner, silencing the group, “Bert’s birthday is on the 30th.” Everyone looked at each other quizzically, they had all known that. I mean, they had all been like family for the past five years, why _wouldn’t_ they know that?

  
“But him and I are taking a road trip together up North to Hizuru,” Ah, so this is what they were getting at, “so we wanted to throw a party before we left since we won’t be there for New Years!” Reiner hugged Bertholdt from behind, who was sitting down and once again trying to copy homework.

“Get a room!” Falco gagged, making the group laugh. “Anyways,” Reiner continued once the group’s laughter died down, “the party is the week after next at my house. Armeen-” Reiner finger gunned to Armin, “you can pass the invitation onto the club because I don’t know where they sit; booze is optional, we don’t want them there just for that, we like them and think they’re pretty cool,” the rest of the group nodded in agreement while Armin just gave a meek smile and a thumbs up. “Alright, that’s it. Party hardy!” And with that, everyone went into discussion of the party and what to do, how to set up.

Although it was common for the small family to have parties every month, Eren just hung his head and ate his snack. The Lord seemed to always have something up his sleeve when it came to parties this year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> has anyone else noticed how i am literally the queen of just posting chapters without re-reading/editing bc i get too excited HAHAHA see yall in the next chapt!! <3


	16. Making Up and Making Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MAJOR SMUT WARNING!!
> 
> literally, this chapter is pure smut. there's some plot if you squint hard enough, but it's pure smut. sigh, i think this is going to end soon but i can't really tell LMFAOO anyways yuh and also thanks for all of the feedback mwah mwah if i could i would hug every single one of you TuT
> 
> also, yall in the comments be like "op, how do you keep updating so fast??"
> 
> guys, i watch attack on titan and write fanfic in my free time, pretty bold of yall to assume i have a life ;-; jk, i actually do have a pretty busy schedule but ig i just type fast of smth idk :p okay, onto chapt 16!! <33

The week of the party, Annie and Zofia’s parents finally returned from their trip and moved into their own house down the street from Armin and his grandpa, so it only made sense that Annie used her mom’s car to drive herself, her younger sister, and Armin to the party. Eren was slightly disappointed; he was hoping the ride situation would force him and Armin to talk because they hadn’t since two weeks ago. Everytime Eren made an attempt, something would always conveniently happen that would make him not talk to Armin. He still waited outside for Armin to leave the club too, but then was told by Mr. Shadis that the club got out earlier and Hanji was now driving Armin home.

Eren hoped that Armin would be decent enough to drop it for the sake of Bertholdt’s party.

Reiner’s house was your casual suburban home, an oddly serious office for his dad’s work and a walk-in pantry that made you feel out of place. Reiner’s parents had actually allowed the party so they were both out at some fancy hotel for the weekend and his dad said, “It’s not that we trust you, but this is an early Christmas gift for your mom.” Whether it was joking or not, Reiner didn’t care because now his house was free.

Eren arrived carrying his and Mikasa’s night bags on his shoulders while Mikasa managed their gift (they got him a decorative neck pillow because he always had kinks in his neck from his odd sleeping positions while the rest of the bag was filled with his favorite chips and sodas because the Jaeger siblings were unfortunately uncreative). When he opened the door, the living room was cleared of people but they both heard chatter coming from the dining room table. 

They both entered with full hands and warm hearts, being greeted by everyone who crowded around the table. Pizza had gotten there five minutes prior so the small family sat around each other and enjoyed everyone’s presence, munching down on garlic knots and greasy pizza before the doorbell sounded.

“I’ll get it!” piped up Udo, who scurried off to the front door. The marine biology club appeared seconds later in the dining room entrance waving around beer and gifts. Hanji bounded over to Bertholdt, giving him a big hug and shaking him back and fourth while shouting, “Happy early Vagina-Exit!” which led to Levi giving them a quick smack on the back of their head. After Hanji detached themselves, Nanaba gave a sweet hug and offered her and Miche’s gift, who sniffed Bertholdt discreetly while giving the classic ‘bro-hug’, which looked effortless with their corresponding heights. Erwin did the same with Moblit following, but Levi opted for an estranged knuckle bump rather than a bro-hug since his own head barely met Bert’s shoulder.

“Optional beer?!” Hanji yelled, stuffing their face with cheesy bread, “since when is alcohol optional?”

“We didn’t want you guys to think we were using you for your beer, you guys are honestly pretty cool. You should start sitting at lunch with us,” Reiner invited, standing behind Bert’s chair and wrapping his arms around his boyfriend from behind. The rest of the group agreed, even Connie got up to give Moblit a few cheerful pats on the back. Historia made her way to convince Nanaba, and Hanji was practically hanging off of Levi while begging.

“Ugh, fine whatever I don’t care,” the senior grumbled, hints of a smile dawning his face while the entire crowd cheered. 

“Okay, awesome! So we sit kinda in the center-” Eren heard Sasha begin to explain, moving her fingers along the table to create an invisible outline. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Levi opening up one of the six-packs and passing out the bottles, but Eren gracefully passed. He didn’t want another... _ mistake _ to happen.

After a while of talking, Reiner was nowhere to be found until the lights suddenly went out and a cake with 17 candles on it began making its way towards Bert amid the darkness.

“1, 2, 3~” Reiner started as everyone joined in singing the classic Happy Birthday, finishing with Bertholdt blowing out his candles and the lights being flicked back on by Marco. Everyone looked at Bertholdt in shock to find his eyes watery.

“Guys, I just want to say how grateful I am for all of you,” he sighed happily, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his favorite blue sweater, “I love every single one of you so much and thank you for celebrating with me today.”

This sent the group into an emotional hysteria, Reiner leaning down to capture Bert’s lips in a quick kiss before saying, “Happy birthday, my love. I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together,” which made the table awe. Eren observed them with happiness and envi. They were so out and proud, and not in the clich é way either. He could tell that they were a forever kind of thing by the way Reiner’s eyes glistened whenever Bert spoke, or how Bert’s ears would perk up if he heard Reiner talking while he copied homework. He had always noticed the secret kisses during lunch, or how Reiner could simply do something like rub his back and Bertholdt would turn to complete mush. It swelled in Eren’s heart, thumping loudly and-

“Eren, everyone’s going to the living room, come on!” Mikasa called, taking his hands and dragging the dazed boy out of his chair. He followed, occupying a spot on the couch and Mikasa took the one next to him. Looking around, he couldn’t spot Armin, but then Eren shrugged. He was probably just at the bathroom- Eren shouldn’t even care, it’s not like Armin had spoken to him within the last two weeks about anything.

“Hey Eren, I think I left my phone in the guest room, can you please go grab it for meee?” Sasha called from the ground where she laid on Connie’s lap. 

“Why can’t you get it?”

“I’m drunk.”

Connie cackled, flicking her forehead, “Everyone has only had one beer, silly,” before his eyes went wide and he quickly shut his mouth. “Actually yeah,” the silver-haired boy quickly stuttered with a smile, “can you go get Sasha’s phone please, Eren?”

Eren threw his head back in exasperation before getting up and making his way to the guest bedroom, “Ugh, fine!” Sasha clapped her hands and yelled her thanks. Eren peeked open the guest room door only to see a familiar figure hunched over a bag, rustling through it.

“Armin?” The figure stiffened, turning to meet Eren’s eyes, “what’re you doing here?”

“Sasha asked me to grab her ph-” Armin was cut off by a loud slam of the door, along with a locking noise and the removal of a key, along with snickers coming from the otherside. Eren immediately turned around and began pounding on the door, begging to be let out.

“No-pe!” He heard Ymir call, only to be cut off by her brother.

“Your guys’ fighting has been throwing everyone off lately, get over it and when you can prove you like each other again then you can come back out!” That damn Marco and his stupid voice. Eren cursed him mentally before he heard another shout.

“By the way, lube and condoms are in Sasha’s bag!” Connie called and the group of footsteps walked away, leaving him and Armin in the room.

“Those motherfuckers,” Eren grumbled and walked over to the bed, picking up a pillow and throwing it against the door. It collided with a soft thud and landed on the floor, making the brunette groan and throw himself on the bed, laying on his back.

He heard a shuffling noise but felt no dip of the bed, so out of curiosity he lifted his head. Armin was sat against the door with his knees tucked into his chest. Eren scoffed.

“What, can’t even sit next to me now?” He spat maliciously. No response.

He fell back against the bed once more, closing his eyes and continuing to let his thoughts spill out without a filter.

“Honestly, Ar, I don’t understand why you think it’s ok to take out whatever you’re dealing with on me. You do realize that this affects me too, right?” He sighed before starting back up, “You’re my best friend. Every second I spend away from you is fucking agony, we’ve never been seperated since we were kids. Then that stupid chemistry project, what happened to us?” More silence. “I’m hurting more than you think. I was hoping you would even ride with us today to the party. Did you know I waited three extra hours for you to get out of your stupid club last Monday?” Nothing. Eren gave up and tried to will himself to sleep. It was only about 9pm, but he would prefer to sleep until morning rather than deal with the unresponsive Armin.

That was until he felt a dip on the bed and a soft crawl to his body. He stayed still, not wanting to ruin anything with sudden movement. Eren laid completely on his back and Armin laid down semi-on top of him, throwing an arm over the remainder of Eren’s torso and taking his other hand to guide one of Eren’s out from behind his head and around Armin’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered so lightly that Eren could barely hear it. Eren’s mind flashed back to Reiner and Bert before he began to experimentally rub his hand up and down Armin’s back, feeling the shorter boy relax into his touch.

“What’s wrong, Armin?” He questioned gently.

“Can I tell you in a bit? I want this to...last,”  _ ‘before I can’t do it anymore,’ _ Armin wanted to finish. Eren just nodded, rubbing Armin’s back and appreciating the touch of having his childhood best friend against him again. A gentle thirty minutes passed before Armin got to his knees and shuffled to the other side of the bed, sitting criss-cross and looking at Eren. The brunette was quickly able to take the hint, following Armin and copying his position.

“Eren, I was mad at myself over something I honestly can’t control,” Armin started shakily, but he couldn’t even finish before Eren gave his input.

“Why would you be mad over something you can’t control?”

“I thought I could control it,”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Armin twiddled his thumbs idly.

“So...what was it?”

“I honestly can’t tell you-”

“What the hell?” Eren cut him off, staring down the blonde. “What do you mean you ‘can’t tell me’, Armin? We used to tell each other everything!” Eren’s voice began to get louder and louder with each syllable.

“Why can’t I keep this personal, Eren?” Armin’s voice also began to rise.

“Because! Since when do we keep things personal? Secrets? What is so bad that you have to hide it from me!” The brunette yelled, getting up off the bed and beginning to mumble to himself in a flurry, making weird hand motions as he talked. 

“Eren! We’re growing up, some things just aren’t meant to be said,” Armin argued, whipping Eren out of his trance. Both boys were beginning to go red in the cheeks from irritation.

“Even to me? I’ve always told you everything, Armin, so  _ what the fuck is so different now?” _

_ “BECAUSE EREN, ALL I’VE EVER WANTED FROM YOU WAS TO TOUCH ME!”  _ The blonde yelled incredulously, only from Eren to roll his eyes and groan.

“Great, we’re back to this stupid shit again. You aren’t getting it. Honestly Armin, it mean’t nothing, you shouldn’t be getting so worked up over thi-”

“No, Eren!  _ You _ don’t get it!” Armin pointed a rude finger at him, shuffling to the opposite side of the bed and getting all up in Eren’s personal space. If there was actual space bubbles, Eren’s would sure as hell be popped. “I want to hug you! Cuddle you! I want to comfort you on bad days and touch your stupid greasy hair and share secrets and goddammit I just want to  _ kiss you and for it to mean something!” _

_ “Then why don’t you?!” _

_ “Fine!” _

_ “Fine!” _

Armin’s hands shot forward, roughly grabbing Eren’s face and smashing their lips together. Their teeth banged together upon initial impact but both boys refused to back away, furiously kissing with a new fire lit between them. The previous air that had been following them for two weeks, heavy with unknown anger and sexual tension, dissipated around them.

Sober, Eren ran his hands up and down Armin’s waist in an attempt to map out and memorize the blonde’s body but his mission was cut off with a loud moan as Armin tugged at the roots of his hair. Eren rested his hands on Armin’s hips and gently began to push Armin backwards, who took the hint and backed up without disconnecting their lips. Eren crawled his way back onto the bed and put his hands underneath Armin’s legs, straightening them out and turning them so Armin laid against the pillows.

Eren finally pulled away, observing his best friend. Armin’s nose and cheeks were tinted pink, along with his slightly swollen lips that were a darker shade of pink. His ocean blue eyes, usually ignited with a spark, were now dark with lust and want, making Eren feel something in his chest that he couldn’t dare classify in the moment. The brunette ripped off his shirt and put an arm next to Armin’s head, balancing him as he hovered over the blonde.

“Eren…” his friend sighed softly before bringing his slender fingers up and wrapping around Eren’s back, pulling him down into another heated makeout session. Armin’s tongue shot out, swiping along Eren’s bottom lip. He moaned lightly and opened his mouth, relishing in the feeling of Armin’s tongue sliding lightly against his own everytime their mouths met. Eren lowered himself down to his elbow, leaning and using his free hand to reach down and adjust Armin’s legs so he was comfortably slotted in between them. Disconnecting their lips and leaving a trail of saliva, Eren quickly rid Armin of the crewneck he was wearing, only to be met with a white collared shirt underneath.

_ ‘Stupid Zofia and her good fashion sense,’  _ Eren cursed mentally before taking his free hand and slowly unbuttoning each button with slight difficulty, until Armin just pushed him off completely and undid the shirt himself.

The heat of Eren’s bare skin was nothing short of completely intoxicating and Armin took the liberty of spreading his legs slightly wider, lifting them and wrapping them around Eren’s waist, forcing them on top of each other. His hands gripped Eren’s back and his nape, one hand holding their chests flush together and the other running through Eren’s hair, tugging occasionally. Eren began to slowly creep away from Armin’s mouth, moving to the corner of his lips and then his cheek, lightly nipping at his earlobe until finally getting to his neck, sucking harshly and eliciting low groans from Armin. Eren wasn’t counting how many dark purple marks were now along the side of Armin’s neck, he just knew there was a fuck ton. He was honestly scared to open his eyes, afraid that this might be a dream.

“Eren, I…” Armin gasped, cutting himself off with a moan, “please...bite my neck.”

Eren froze, now opening his eyes in shock and contradicting his earlier thoughts. He lightly backed away, hovering over Armin’s face who had his eyes squeezed shut. He hesitantly popped one open and squeaked in embarrassment, “or don’t! That’s totally fine if you aren’t into that, it’s not that big of a deal-” Eren cut him off with a light kiss, a simple touch of the lips, before pulling back.

“You actually weren’t kidding when you asked Marco to try blood play?” Armin’s entire face was now red with pure embarrassment, making Eren chuckle and return to the blonde’s neck, licking over the marks he had made previously. 

“Satanic little shit. Tell me to stop if I go too far,” was the last quiet mumble Armin heard before he felt teeth sinking into the conjunction of his neck and shoulder, making him cry out initially in pain but it slowly morphed into pleasure, making blood rush completely south. He held onto Eren as the brunette kept his mouth clamped down, licking along the ring of his teeth before releasing and pulling back. Armin’s eyes were glazed over and Eren replaced his hand next to Armin’s head, grabbing the blonde’s hip and experimentally rolling his hips forward. Their identical hard-on’s met, making both teens cry out as tension was relieved. Eren leaned back on his calves, lifting Armin’s hips and continuing to push their hips together, making both boys begin to pant. Eventually, Armin stuck out an arm, motioning Eren to come back to his face to which he complied. 

They continued to kiss but Eren felt Armin toying with his jeans, eventually popping the zipper and pulling them down. Eren balanced himself but leaning his forehead on Armin’s shoulder, undoing the blonde’s jeans in a fervor before quickly yanking them off, along with his own. The new found friction was delicious as both their boners met, making the headboard hit the wall lightly as Eren furiously ground down into Armin’s ass. Deciding things were going way too slow for his liking, Armin lifted his hand while Eren was distracted and shoved it down Eren’s boxers, taking a grip on Eren’s cock, giving it a light tug which made the brunette halt all his actions.

“Oh  _ fuck, _ ” Eren groaned, lightly fucking himself into Armin’s hand as the blonde used his precum to slick his shaft. The motions were slow but experienced as Armin twisted his hand up and down. Eren reached down to lightly palm Armin in his boxers, scattering his brain to remember the lunch period in which he did the exact same thing. He gently tugged the waistband down, making Armin’s cock spring out and slap against the blonde’s stomach. In a flurry of confidence, Eren lightly picked off Armin’s hand and motioned to lift his hips, ridding the blonde of his underwear and then himself, leaving both boys completely nude. 

They both made eye contact and to be frank, it was awkward. They’d seen each other naked before, but as Eren’s gaze raced over Armin’s form and back up to his eyes, it felt so  _ seductive _ . Eren’s mouth practically began to water.

“Eren, don’t- don’t stare at me,” Armin whined, removing his hands completely from his best friend to cover his face and his dick. Eren chuckled, moving the hand away from Armin’s face and gracing his cheek with a soft kiss, licking a stripe up his cheek before leaning down to his ear.

“Do you want this, Armin? We don’t have to go any farther,” he whispered delicately, kissing beneath the ear lobe. Armin pushed him back now, using both hands to cup Eren’s face. One of them was distinctly wet, which would be gross in any other situation.

“Eren, what do you mean? Of course I want this, it’s  _ you _ who I’m worried about, Mr. ‘I-Like-Girls’,” to this Eren laughed, removing Armin’s dry hand and kissing along the slender fingers lightly. Armin observed the action with care.

“Just...promise me you won’t regret this in the morning,” Armin pleaded, all sexual undertones lost from his voice. Eren stopped his actions and dropped Armin’s hand down to the bed, interlacing their fingers together.

“I promise,” he said. Armin’s face was graced with a smile that reached ear-to-ear before pulling Eren back down again, reaching his hand below and fumbling with both of their cocks.

“Sasha’s bag for lube and condoms,” Armin moaned as things picked up pace again, the room once again becoming hot with teenage lust. Eren nodded and removed himself from Armin, standing up and rifling through Sasha’s bag and tossing her stuff everywhere before he found what he desired. As he got up, he heard a small chuckle. His head turned to Armin, who was still delicately sat up against the headboard.

“What the fuck could possibly be so funny right now?”

“I don’t know,” Armin mused, getting to his knees and crawling over to the end of the bed where Eren was. “The fact that I’m about to have sex and lose my virginity with my best friend, your ass being so flat, or how disgustingly hairy you are,” Armin’s eyes swept hungrily across Eren’s body despite his statements.

“Well my apologies for not trimming the trees, I didn’t exactly expect to get any form of action tonight,” Eren rolled his eyes, tossing the small bottle of lube and a condom down where the pillows lay. Armin was still on all-fours in front of him and Eren reached his hand down, running it through Armin’s hair.

“What do you mean? The author specifically made it so every party has significance between us,” Eren halted his actions.

“Excuse me what?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Armin chuckled, nuzzling back into Eren’s hand, “it’s something Levi taught me,” was the last thing Armin said before reaching forward and taking Eren’s painfully hard cock into his hand. Still standing, Eren’s legs nearly buckled underneath him and he threw his head back. “Ever get a blowjob before?” He shook his head.

A breath graced his muscled v-line before a kitten lick swiped across his tip, making him tightly pull on Armin’s short hair. A moan came in response and so did more kitten licks before a small mouth delicately wrapped itself around Eren’s head, giving light sucks. Eren let out a string of profanities as Armin’s hand pumped the rest of Eren’s length before he continued to experimentally sink further down on Eren’s impressively long and girthy length. Mentally, Armin compared him to Marco, but unfortunately Eren easily took the cake. 

“Fuck baby, you look so good right now,” Eren cringed after the sentence was said. He wasn’t sure where it came from, but frankly it happened and  _ ew _ he totally just called Armin baby and- oh, Armin seemed to like that because Eren felt vibrations of a moan against his dick.

“You like it when I call you names?” Armin nodded and Eren smiled down at the blonde, who peeked up through his eyelashes as he deepthroated Eren, nuzzling his nose against the brunette’s skin and giving the most pornographic sight he’d ever seen. He continued to coo at Armin, calling him different names experimentally and testing his reaction. The blonde pulled off, eyes watery and pupils blown out as he looked up at Eren. If anything, the sight made Eren want to cum all over his face on the spot, seeing Armin look up to him like that.

“This is definitely a lot smoother and kinkier than I imagined my first time being,” Eren laughed which turned into a moan as Armin’s tongue poked out to lick his lips, who then giggled and stood up on his calves to meet Eren’s face, pulling him into another kiss.

“Yeah, same,” the blonde huffed as they broke apart. Armin made his way back towards the bed, motioning Eren to follow. Both boys crawled on the bed, once again becoming entangled with each other, and Armin grabbed the lube.

“Honestly, I really am new to this whole gay sex thing, so I don’t really know how to um...do that,” Eren admit sheepishly, making Armin laugh. 

“I’ve done it before, want to watch?” Eren nodded eagerly and sat back, watching Armin spread his legs in front of him, lather lube on his index finger, and easily sliding it past the shaved ring of muscle. Small noises came out of Armin and Eren lightly pumped himself as he watched his hole clench around his finger. He could see light movements of it wiggling around and slowly coming in and out before he added a second one, beginning to scissor them and becoming slightly more vocal. Eren was completely enticed by time the third finger was involved and after a few seconds, Eren leaned forward and slid Armin’s hand out, grabbing the lube and slathering it over three of his own fingers.

“Please,” Armin begged, spreading his legs even wider. Eren started with one, but it was shortly followed by two as Armin was already stretched. Eren mimicked the movements he saw, allowing Armin to adjust to his calloused fingers before adding a third, beginning to pump his fingers in and out at a fast rate. Armin clawed at Eren’s neck, legs wide open and his eyes began to tear up when Eren leaned forward and took Armin’s cock in his mouth, virginly sucking at the tip. What? He saw it in porn once.

The overstimulation made Armin cry out, begging Eren for more.

“ _ Eren! _ Oh god, fucking  _ please, _ I’m gonna cum,  _ ah!” _ Armin’s sperm shot out once, twice, three times into Eren’s mouth and his fingers slowed making a face as the taste infiltrated his taste buds. Seeing this, Armin breathlessly grabbed Eren’s face and made it hover over his own.

“Spit,” the blonde ordered, making Eren’s dick twitch, before he complied. His saliva, mixed with Armin’s cum, dripped into Armin’s mouth which the blonde swallowed easily. Eren moaned, using his lube covered fingers to lightly pump Armin and get him hard again.

“That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” the brunette admitted, tucking his head into Armin’s neck and sucking. Once Armin was rock hard again, Eren removed his hand and grabbed a condom, rolling it on with ease and mentally thanking the example banana in his freshman year Sex Ed. class for teaching him how to not make a fool of himself while being safe.

“God, please just put it in already, Er,” Armin moaned and Eren came forward, lathering his dick in more lube before lining up at Armin’s entrance.

“Tell me if you want to stop, okay?” The burn was worse than Armin imagined, practically searing as Eren’s large cock stretched his ass. It took a solid seven minutes for Eren to be fully submerged into Armin, a relieved sigh coming out as their hips met. They stayed there, letting Armin adjust and Eren wiped the light tears that pooled in his eyes.

“Are you okay?” Armin gave a whimper in confirmation before peeking out of his eyes and reaching up to kiss Eren.

“You can move.”

There was a slow drag of Eren’s hips, shallowly going out before lightly pushing back in. The pressure was better for Armin and he gave Eren whispers of confirmation before Eren fully pulled out, only leaving his tip in, before roughly pushing back into Armin. A broken moan left the brunette, making Eren lay down on top of Armin completely and wrapping his arms around Armin’s small body, leaving no space between them. Armin did the same, tightly wrapping his arms around Eren’s muscular back and linking his legs around Eren’s waist. Eren thrusted slowly and shallowly, muttering sweet praises into Armin’s ear that the blonde absolutely drank up.

_ ‘You feel so good,’ ‘You’re doing so well,’ ‘Fuck, you’re so tight,’ ‘You’re so good Armin, so good, baby’ _

“Eren,” Armin moaned, lifting Eren’s face to hover nearly centimeters away from his face. Both boys made eye contact, the world seeming to revolve around them, “ _ Please _ go harder,” the blonde begged and Eren easily complied. Again, he drew his hips and back roughly slammed back in, making the headboard bang against the wall. Eren began to lean upwards, glowering over Armin who lifted his hands and crossed them in a similar fashion to when Eren pinned him down. Eren’s rough pace was now steady, so he brought his hand down to pin Armin’s crossed wrists and began to spit malice words.

_ ‘You like this don’t you? Being fucked by my cock,’ _ To which Armin whimpered, nodding helplessly. See? All that gay porn  _ would _ help him one day, so fuck all of you. He continued to say things to Armin, calling him dirty names and Armin’s vision was becoming hazy as his second orgasm began to build. Helplessly, his head lolled to the side when it was roughly jerked back by Eren’s other free hand.

“You gonna cum?” Eren asked huskily, moaning.

“Yes, oh fuck yes I’m gonna-  _ fuck! Keep fucking me like that! _ ” Armin shouted as a sweet bundle of nerves was hit somewhere deep inside him. Eren angled his hips and went faster, desperately chasing his orgasm.

“You’re gonna look at me when you cum, okay? Because who made you cum on their cock?”

“You did! I’m gonna cum on your cock!” Armin cried in response to Eren’s growl, holding the intense eye contact while Eren kept his head in place.

“Can I choke you?” Eren asked as his pace picked up. Armin nodded helplessly, a light ‘yes’ before Eren’s hand left his face and began to clutch around the blonde’s neck. The brunette ruthlessly pounded into him, the headboard building a rhythm against the wall and both boys moaned each other’s name in unison.

“Fuck, Armin, I’m close,” Eren growled.

“I-I’m gonna cum! Please, let me come, Eren, please let me-  _ ah!” _ Eren didn’t know that Armin was going to ask for permission, but the position of power Armin let hang over him ran through Eren’s veins and straight to his dick. 

Eren leaned down, moving his hand and licking along Armin’s neck.

_ “Come for me, baby boy,” _ he moaned helplessly and pulled back, seeing Armin’s eyes rolling to the back of his head and then they came back, blissed out as Armin nearly screamed in pleasure. The feeling of Armin’s cum coating both their stomachs was enough to push Eren over the edge, making his hand roughly jerk Armin’s face to the side and giving access to Armin’s neck, once again biting down on top of the first bite mark.

Eren pulled out after a few minutes, both groaning from the loss, before Eren tied up the condom and threw it vaguely onto the nightstand to throw away in the morning. Armin laid on the bed as Eren found his own shirt, wiping up their mess before crawling underneath the covers and taking the blonde into his arms.

Armin willingly except his embrace, enjoying the way Eren’s hands ran through his hair. He felt completely stretched and like Jell-O, the burn of broken skin beginning to set in. Eren noted this and made his way out of the bed, making Armin whimper. The brunette lazily made his way to the ensuite, taking the handrag and soaking it in warm water.

_ ‘Huh, I definitely didn’t have to use my shirt to clean up cum then. That sucks,’  _ he mused, wringing out the towel and folding it in a similar fashion to his mother before coming back to bed and retaking his position, now laying the rag against the two overlapping bite marks. Armin hummed, snuggling up and laying his bare body flush against Eren’s. He responded by wrapping his arms around Armin, pulling him in tight.

“Talk in the morning?”

“Please.”

“Okay, goodnight,” Eren leaned down and captured Armin’s swollen lips with his softly, kissing slowly for a minute before Armin pulled away and laid his head against Eren’s chest, listening to his heartbeat like a lullaby. Eren felt the toothy smile against his skin.

“Goodnight.”

-

“Jesus- have you two made up yet? This shit is taking forever-  **_OH MY FUCKING GOD!”_ ** Eren awoke to sunlight infiltrating the room. He took in his surroundings, convinced the sudden noise was from his dream that he couldn’t remember for some reason. He lightly peaked his eyes open to find Armin’s back turned to him, but they were still cuddling and were still flush against each other. He gave a soft smile and thumped his head back on the pillow, burying his head into Armin’s hair and trying to fall back asleep.

“Guys, you gotta come see this!” Wait- that definitely didn’t sound like a dream. He felt Armin squirm at the loud noise as well, making Eren shoot up and startling the blonde who followed suit. He turned to Eren, putting a hand on his chest and asking what was wrong before they both looked at the wide open door and then they remembered. They looked at each other with wide, scared eyes before they heard a bumbling sound of way too many footsteps racing over to the room. Eren quickly pulled up the covers over their naked lower halves to attempt to be decent but both museums of hickies left on each other’s necks and chests were still on full display. Eren ran a hand through his hair, which fell out of his bun in his sleep, and Armin did the same.

Connie hit the doorframe first, key in hand.

‘ _ Ah, so he’s the one that found us,’ _ Eren mused to himself before Ymir came bounding in, followed by Marco, Jean, Reiner, and Mikasa. The group gaped at the two, observing the room that was filled with thrown off clothes and eyes shooting between the used condom on the nightstand and the two naked boys on the bed. Armin gave a weak wave and an embarrassed smile, “Hey guys…”

"The lube and condoms was a joke, it was just a joke..." Connie mumbled mindlessly with wide-eyed horror as the rest of the group continued to stare. Even Jean was rendered speechless, who Eren thought would make a dick joke right now. Marco held a smug smile on his face and he stared directly at Armin, who went even more red.

“Hey, why is everyone crowded around the door? Did they finally make- oh.” Levi pushed his way to the front and observed the scene, sinister smirk gracing his face that looked creepily like Kenny’s. “Way to go, Squirt, you finally grew a pair.”

“Guys, breakfast is ready and I’m not afraid to eat it al-  _ HOLY FUCK!”  _ Sasha weaved through the crowd, stepping into the room and observing her bad that was thrown apart in a horny search for lube and condoms. She glanced back up in horror, “You didn’t get your...fluids on anything, did you?” Eren shook his head no, wide-eyed.

“Hey, what’s the commotion?”

“Don’t have a party without me! Mobi, come on- oh shit,”

“Gabi! Don’t run so early in the-” all four kids screamed, making everyone groan from light post-hangover headaches. The freshmen observed the scene in horror and Eren smiled at Falco wearily, “So...did you guys get to drink?” The freshmen nodded, jaw still hitting the floor.

Everyone decided to crowd around the door, staring at the two and the silence between the two best friends and the rest of their family was thick until Reiner stepped forward, making his way to Eren’s side of the bed and bro-hugging him.

“My man!” He whooped, giving a slap on his bare back which made Eren wince. He turned to the group, victoriously throwing a fist up in the air, “My man, Jaegermeister!” Reiner cheered humorously, breaking the awkward silence and the group began to laugh at the scene, congratulating the two for making up and doing well.. the rest. 

“I’m literally right here, celebrate me too,” Armin grumbled angrily, collapsing into Eren’s chest with his arms crossed. Ymir gave a laugh and hollered, “You sure you didn’t curse him with some weird voodoo shit?”

“Not this time,” he meekly responded, making the rest continue their laughter. After their momentary embarrassment, everyone left them alone to get dressed. Mikasa came back with both their night bags and eyed the two, mentally chanting her victory before deadpanning and saying, “I’m telling Mom.” Eren just rolled his eyes and waved her out. Once she shut the door, both boys respectively began to get dressed. Although, it came naturally to Eren to sneak in a kiss here and there when he could, even wrapping his arms around Armin as the blonde brushed his teeth, tenderly kissing his neck before beginning to brush his own. Before they made their way out of the room, Armin grabbed Eren’s hand in a rush and stopping him.

Eren tentatively turned around, looking at his best friend.

“Eren, we still need to talk.”

He turned around and smiled, hugging Armin and tenderly kissing the top of his head.

“It’s ok, I know I was stupid, I should’ve realized earlier that you liked me, you were giving a lot of obvious hints,” Eren chuckled, rubbing Armin’s back, “I honestly didn’t realize that you did until you kissed me, that’s when I kinda connected the dots.” 

Armin pulled away, hitting Eren’s chest emptily, “You are such a dumbass, but you’re right. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you, it was my own problem. I was just scared to lose you, I didn’t want to accidentally say anything and have it end with you leaving me forever,” Armin admit, playing with Eren’s hands in his own, “I figured if I didn’t do anything, it wouldn’t give any room for mistakes.”

Eren laughed, leaning down and kissing Armin’s cheek. The blonde’s mind flashed back to a few months ago when Levi said Eren had a touching kink and Nanaba corrected him, saying his love language was physical touch. He figured they were right.

“Well, don’t do that again,” Eren’s voice broke out of his thoughts, “It was agony.”

“So, what does this mean now?”

“Well, I actually came out to my parents. I’m uh...gay,” Eren said quietly, looking down at his feet. Sometimes it was still hard to admit. A hand on his cheek lifted his face to Armin’s, who leaned forward and gave another kiss. Eren loved how many kisses he was getting this morning.

“Hey, guess what?”

“What?”

“So am I,” the blonde boy smiled cheekily before taking Eren’s hand in his and dragging him out of the room and towards the smell of Sasha’s food coming from the kitchen. As they walked, Eren looked down at their hands and felt the way Armin’s soft hands molded to his calloused ones, Armin’s framed by years of books and page flipping while his own were molded by rough sports and fights, yet they seemed to slot perfectly against each other.

Eren could get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oopsies, too much smut? meh, who cares. see yall in the next one <333


	17. There's Like 3 Different Plots but the Main Point is That These Bitches Gay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT NOTE!!! and also SMALL SMUT WARNING FOR THE BEGINNING OF THE CHAPT
> 
> holy freak, the last chapter D: i can't believe that i managed to write an entire fic in the span of just over a month, absolutely crazy. maybe i should go outside and touch some grass. author's note coming out after the epilogue!! and also, if you guys want to ask questions, just comment them with a /Q before the question and I'll include them in the authors note teehee. knowing how ungodly fast i write, which is kinda scary now that all of yall have pointed it out to me, the epilogue will most likely be out by tomorrow but im setting the date for the authors note to be on this upcoming aot sunday, march 7th. okay, that's it :D thank you all again and onto chapter 17 <3

The day was spent at Reiner’s, consisting of cleaning up and allowing everyone else to recover from their hangovers. The kids had it worse, and from what Eren heard, there was a portion of time when Gabi was chanting on Jean’s shoulders, not that he would’ve known because he was too busy screwing Armin silly. 

By time the afternoon rolled around, Armin sat in Eren’s lap as they shared a piece of leftover cake on the couch watching Bertholdt open his gifts. Both their necks now looked relatively normal thanks to the pure makeup superpowers that were bestowed with Historia and Sasha.

Armin had gotten Bertholdt new cardigans since they both had a strange passion for the pieces of clothing. Bertholdt also laughed at Eren and Mikasa’s gift, giving his thanks before moving on. Everyone slowly started to pile out of the house afterwards, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin being the second group to leave after Marco and Jean. They all gave their goodbye hugs before making their way to the Jaeger household, crashing in the living room unceremoniously. Carla poked her head in from the kitchen, raising her eyebrows at the small tuft of blonde hair that laid against her son’s shoulder. She made her way back into the kitchen, where her husband stirred the sauce for her pasta.

“Tonight will end in one of us getting $20,” she mused quietly, making Grisha stride over and also poke his head in.

“You’re on, Mrs. Jaeger, but you will end tonight $20 short!” He chuckled quietly, watching his wife cook, “I’m just glad those two made up. Hopefully it’s the last time,” Dr. Jaeger sighed.

“Me too,” she agreed before draining the pasta and calling the kids for dinner. As the three piled in to make their plates, Carla gave Armin a kiss on the cheek and a hug, saying how much she missed him after Thanksgiving. He apologized sheepishly, hugging her back and promising he would be there for a pre-Christmas dinner. Grisha gave him a pat on the back before allowing him to make his plate, all four Jaegers and one Arlert making their way to their designated dining room seats. They all gathered around, prepping their meals, before Mikasa broke the silence.

“Eren and Armin had sex last night.”

Carla’s fork, halfway into her mouth, clattered down to her plate. Grisha went wide-eyed, accidentally ripping his paper napkin in half since he was in the middle of laying it on his lap. Armin went bug-eyed, a silent screech leaving his mouth and Eren shot his head to look at her. He slammed his tableware down, “What the _fuck,_ Mikasa?!” 

“Language!” Grisha silently choked out, trying to process the information.

“What?” His older sister shrugged her shoulders and dug into her pasta, “It’s true.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to talk about _our_ sex life in front of Mom and D-”

“Did one of you ask out the other before it happened?” Grisha had his hands clasped, staring at the middle of the table. Eren gave a confused look.

“What, why does that matter?”

“Just answer the question, honey,” Carla said, eyes darting between her husband and her daughter.

Eren gave a weary sideglance to Armin, who looked confused and shellshocked, before answering, “Uh, no? It just kinda...happened. We haven’t put a label on it…” Eren trailed off, fear making his heart race at what his mom would say about him losing his virginity so young.

“So...who initiated it?” His mom asked, finally making eye contact with the two boys. Oh god, this was awkward. Eren wanted to die right then and there.

“It was me, Carla,” Armin meeped. His head hung in shame but Eren could feel the embarrassed heat rubbing off him, “I made the first move.”

“ _Motherfucker!”_ His mom yelled, slamming the table and making the two boys jump.

“Armin, my boy!” Grisha trotted around the table and slung an arm over the blonde’s shoulders, who was frozen in fear. “I knew you had it in you, son! Take that, Carla! In your face!”

Grisha whooped and laughed, making his way back to his seat while him and Mikasa highfived, “You both owe me $20 by the way, because I called it.” Carla just shook her head at her lost, mumbling a small ‘ _Goddammit’_ , before looking up.

“You made a bet on us getting together?” Eren asked, pointing an accusing finger at his mom and moving it between her, his father, and Mikasa.

“It’s nothing new, it’s lasted for like- oh god, when did you guys meet? It’s been like 13 years, but Mikasa recently joined in and said you guys would get it on before anything, I can’t believe she was right!” Grisha laughed, eating his pasta happily. Eren rolled his eyes, rubbing his hands on his face and giving a small ‘ _whatever’_ before digging into his food. Absolutely stunned, Armin followed suit.

“Were you guys at least safe? I know you’re both boys but-” 

“Yes, Mom, we were safe. Can we stop talking about this now, oh my god,” Eren cut his mom off, embarrassed that this was even happening.

“Ok, I’m proud of both of you for making up and staying safe. Dig in!”

-

“That was so fucking embarrassing,” Eren groaned, closing his bedroom door. Armin chuckled, guiding his best friend (?) to the bed to lay down. The brunette followed without question, taking his bun out and falling on top of Armin, making the younger boy huff. Slowly, Eren crawled on top of Armin, nuzzling the blonde’s sensitive neck.

“I wish we didn’t have to cover these up,” Eren murmured, nosing where both his bite marks lay. Armin sighed underneath him, tilting his neck, “I know, right?”

Eren continued to lightly kiss along Armin’s jaw, continuing to make the blonde sigh in content until Eren finally reached his lips. They kissed tenderly, appreciating the simple presence of each other before he felt Eren’s hand begin to creep down. He quickly caught it, bringing it back up.

“Hm?” He heard Eren murmur into the side of his neck.

“Your parents are downstairs.”

“Okay, then be quiet.”

“Can I be on top?”

Eren sighed, lifting himself up and throwing himself to the side on to his back, sitting against the headboard. Armin flipped over, taking his position facing Eren while sitting in his lap.

“What’s the thing you did when we made out the first time?” Armin asked, picking at Eren’s fingers. 

“What, this?” He lightly lifted Armin and set him in place with his right hand, balancing on his left to gently meet their hips together, keeping it there and lightly circling. Armin’s head nodded before it lolled back. Eren dryly kept thrusting up, circling his hips, and dropping, because Armin completely plopped in his lap and began to kiss Eren, slowly feeling along his arms and his torso. His hands made his way to Eren’s shirt, lifting slightly and sneaking under, running his fingertips along his abs. He brought his hands back down, unbuttoning Eren’s jeans before unbuttoning his own, bringing both their cocks out and feeling them against each other. Quiet groans came from the both of them, their breaths mixing at the proximity of their faces.

Armin cupped one of his hands under Eren’s mouth and his other under his. “Spit,” he directed again, and both of them spit into their respective hands. The blonde then brought both of his hands down and began the slick up their dicks together with both his hands, cupping them together in one, firm hold and jerking them off together.

Armin let his head fall forward onto Eren’s shoulder and Eren did the same, both of them panting harshly at the feeling of both their members rubbing together furiously. Both amounts of pre-cum added to the slickness, allowing Armin to pump faster. When Eren recognized his hands getting tired, he removed Armin and spit into his own hand, copying Armin and taking control until they both reached their end. Armin came with a quiet cry of Eren’s name, followed with a string of curses. Eren came similarly, calling out for Armin in a whisper and saying praises. After a few minutes, Armin lifted his shoulder to look at Eren.

He brought his wet hands to cup at the tanned boy’s face, who made a face knowing what the moisture was from. Armin chuckled lazily, eyes half lidded. He brought them together for a tender kiss before getting up and getting them both a change of clothes. Once they were situated, they laid down in bed together.

“Eren, what are we?” Armin piped up within the silence. The hand in Armin’s hair continued to twist and twirl.

“Can we just be Armin and Eren for now? But, like, I’m yours and you’re mine?”

Armin nodded contently, knowing that dating a man was new to Eren. It was good enough for him, so he poked his head up and gave Eren a kiss.

“Mine,” he mumbled against his lips before pulling away.

“All yours,” Eren said back, nodding his head before laying back down, both boys being taken into the dark abyss of slumber.

-

“Ymir, junior prom is a month away and Eren and I still haven’t established a label. It has been four months, and he has yet to ask me out!” Armin whined, “not that I want to pressure him or anything, obviously I don't want to move too fast, but the entire school has seen us makeout!” Back in January, Eren came back from his math class absolutely elated, shoving his test that had a big red ‘A+’ adorning it. He cheered, saying how it brought his grade up to a B+, and yelled, ‘ _I’m so happy I could kiss somebody!’,_ then turning to Armin, dipping him in front of the entire student body and kissing him dramatically. Now it was March, it was pretty obvious to everyone they were an item, and still no word of an official label or even an ask to prom.

“Ymir? Ymir!” Armin flicked her forehead, making her shoot awake and yell out _‘Ah Historia I love you!’._ Armin gave an apology to the librarian, who shushed them.

“Did you even hear what I said?”

“Honestly, no. You’re worrying for nothing. You both practically hang off each other constantly, who else would he go with?” Armin’s lips tightened as he pondered, but Ymir was right. He closed their textbooks and stood up from the study table, putting them back in their respective places and leaving the library with the freckled girl. They both shared a class, AP Calculus, and Ymir asked for help studying, which spiralled into a worried rant from Armin.

He got into his car, a gift from his parents when they came home to visit for Christmas, and drove off. Everyone had been acting weird around him lately. Okay yes, he brought up the fact that Eren wasn’t asking him out constantly, but he couldn’t help it! Eren was his and he was Eren’s, there was already no denying that, but Armin was an unfortunate hopeless romantic who wanted to bound around campus and yell, “ _Eren Kruger Jaeger is my boyfriend!”_ at the top of his lungs. He just wanted something more official, was that bad? He figures he was doing good though since he hadn’t brought it up to Eren yet. He wanted him to take his time and come to accept reality as a somewhat-out-gay-guy.

Armin got out of his car, rushing inside and greeting his grandpa before rushing upstairs to change into something warmer and comfier. Hanji cancelled club today because qualifiers for Eren’s baseball team came early this year for some god forbidden reason, so the entire crew along with the entire student body was headed to the baseball field to cheer on the Sina High Titans.

Armin went through his closet, sighing loudly when he couldn’t find his green Sina crewneck. At least his white button up and jeans were clean, but the crewneck was nowhere to be found. He ripped through his closet, knocking down the display of skulls and candles from his top shelf. A thick leather book crashed down against the back of his neck, making him groan as he took a glance.

 _‘Stupid ritual book,’_ he cursed, turning a few pages and reading the handwritten ancient Latin before gently putting everything back. He then turned, making a face at his laundry basket which hadn’t been touched all month. He dug through it, finding his crewneck at the very bottom and smelling it. He gagged, holding the fabric away. _Damn,_ for someone as prepubescent as him, his BO was rank as hell.

He laid it out on his bed, spraying heaps of cologne against the armpits and collar before shaking it out and repeating the process until he deemed it to smell decent. Throwing it on, he ran downstairs, nearly tripping over his own shoelaces.

“Jesus and Mary, Armin, did you shower in perfume?” His grandpa called upon his entrance to the living room.

“Does it smell good?”

“It smells strong.” Armin sighed, at least it didn’t smell bad, “I’m going to Eren’s game, see you later, Papa!”

The blonde got into his car and raced back to school, meeting his friends in the parking lot. They were able to get the entire first bleacher on Sina’s side, thanks to the Jaegers and the Kirsteins for saving it. Everyone, including the marine biology club and the freshmen, sat shoulder to shoulder while they waited for the game to start. Armin sat next to Mikasa, who was pointing things out to Annie next to her, holding her hand in the other. They had announced their relationship the month prior, which made Armin feel happy for them but also mentally roll his eyes because not only were they _girlfriends,_ but Mikasa was also getting ready to ask Annie to Prom by the end of the week and they had only been together for a month. Eventually, warmups ended and now the bleachers were filled with excited students and parents who were anticipating the rematch between the Sina High Titans and the Marley High Warriors. Armin mentally prayed to Satan that Fl*ch wouldn’t lose the game for them again.

When Eren and Jean sprinted out of the dugout, wolf whistles and calls came the loudest from the first bleacher. Although you could consider Eren and Jean relatively popular, nothing beat Connie and Sasha’s inhuman screaming of “Weird Beard” (new nickname for Jean since he’s growing out his hair and stubble) and “Jaegerbomb”. First batter was a strike out looking which easily got the crowd riled up, and the next two outs were a breeze. Sina High’s swagger, being led by famous Junior Duo Jean Kirstein and Eren Jaeger, was immoveable to start out the game.

-

Well, it was immovable until Fl*ch fucked up _again,_ goddammit. Jesus, someone get this kid a spine. The auburn fuckup misread a popfly, which ended up going over his head and allowed two runs to get on the board. This tied up the score to 2-2, and at the bottom half of the ninth inning, the Sina High Titans nor the Marley Warriors hadn’t been able to score. Since they were the home team, Sina was able to hit last at a ditch attempt to get more runs. Not only that, but Fl*ch just struck out, landing the second out of the inning and widening the possibility of having to go overtime for a tiebreaker. The game was tense, both sides shouting chants as Jean stepped up to the plate. It was rather unusual for the starting pitcher to hit, especially as the first hitter in the lineup; it was practically unheard of, but Jean’s impressive batting average kept him in the lineup as the leadoff hitter despite what professionals thought. He got himself ready and the pitch came. _FWAP!_

All of the small family began clapping and yelling louder than the entire bleacher section as Jean ran to first, successfully making it safely after the shortstop bobbled the ball. 

“Atta boy, Horseface! That’s a nice prance you got going on!” Eren yelled loud and proud from the dugout, making the student section burst into giggles and no one missed the indiscreet flip of the bird Jean aimed towards the dugout. Next up was Ony, who took a wide hack and also landed a single, putting runners on first and second. Onyankopon was someone Armin knew vaguely through Hanji, saying they both used to be in the engineering club together, and they cheered loudly for their friend when they got the hit. After Ony was a guy named Porco and honestly, Armin didn’t know anything about him. Reiner and Bertholdt cheered loudly for him though, and even Annie clapped.

“You guys know him?” He leaned across Mikasa to question his cousin.

“Yeah, him and his girlfriend Pieck take ceramics with me, Bert and Reiner,” she yelled over the chaos and pointed near the end of the bleacher, where a beautiful girl with long, black hair sat in a wheelchair, clapping wildly and cheering with an older boy with slick, brown hair.

“Go Pokko!” He heard her yell, falling into hysterics while the boy cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting, “Here we go, Jaw!”

“That’s his older brother, Marcel. He’s in college now, but he went to Marley back in highschool. Kinda awkward, huh?” His cousin chuckled lightly before turning her attention back to the game. Armin agreed, that probably is really awkward. By time his attention was back on the game, Porco was taking a walk to first base. Armin cheered, recognizing that the Marley pitcher was falling apart. The opposing coach, Coach Magath as he had been introduced in the pregame, called time to talk to his pitcher. The Sina High students were wild, and the second the timeout broke, Connie, Sasha, Reiner, and the freshmen stood on top of their seats and began to chant as the 4th batter, the cleanup hitter, approached the plate with bases loaded and two outs. 

_“Jaegerbomb! Jaegerbomb!”_ They started, which got the entire student body to begin to stand and chant his nickname. Eren looked into the crowd before stepping into the box, sweeping his eyes over the fans before he caught Armin’s, who still sat down with Mikasa and Annie among the chaos. He took a gloved finger off his bat, pointing to Armin, bringing the same hand to clutch his jersey over his heart, and then stepped in.

The first pitch was a ball, making the crowd go wild.

 _‘Let’s go Jaegerbomb! Bring it home, kid!’_ called the crowd. He looked down a few spots to see Carla and Grisha also on their feet.

The next pitch, a ball, and then a called strike. Both sides of the crowd continued to grow louder and louder.

The next pitch, Eren took a big swing and the ball cracked off the bat, sending a linedrive into foul territory. The count was now full, bases loaded, two outs, the entire game off the line. Armin quickly stood up, using Mikasa for balance as Eren stepped out of the batter’s box to take a practice swing. He cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled louder than he ever had in his life.

 **_“EREN KRUGER JAEGER!”_ ** The entire crowd grew quieter and Eren picked out Armin’s voice among the crowd, swiftly turning his head to where Armin stood. Armin panted, his cheeks turning red as he yelled. All his friends gaped at him, even Mr. and Mrs. Jaeger. He drew in a deep breath before exclaiming his final sentiment.

**_“NO HOMOOOOOO! I HAVE SOCKS ONNNN!”_ **

Eren burst out laughing, calling time so he could gather himself. The rest of their friends fell into chuckles and Armin heaved for breath from yelling so loudly. The rest of the student body laughed along, unsure of what the joke was but still found it funny. Eren shot Armin a final smile before stepping into the batter’s box. At this point, Mikasa and Annie had stood up too and everyone had begun to once again chant.

 _“Jaegerbomb! Jaegerbomb!”_ Armin was yelling at the top of his lungs, clapping and watching the pitcher get ready. The pitch was thrown, and Eren’s bat flew forward. A sickening crack came from the wood and the ball travelled up centerfield.

“Oh my god, oh my god!” Gabi yelled from the top of Reiner’s shoulders. The ball kept getting farther and farther, Eren did a bat flip as he began to job to first base, and the ball made it’s landing behind the fence. A walkoff grand slam to end and win qualifiers. The Sina High Titans were going to nationals in the summer. The crowd was silent before bursting into loud cheers, everyone piling out and running around the dugout to get on the field, parents and students alike. By time Eren crossed home plate, his team surrounded it and all the fans were gathered on the sidelines. Parents had already begun to snap pictures as Eren was lifted by his teammates, forehead glistening with sweat. Armin’s heart burst with pride as he watched his bestfriend? Boyfriend? Lover? Property? be lifted into the air. All parents crowded around as the team dispersed into a semicircle with Eren and Jean at the head of it, yelling for a speech.

Jean and Eren looked to a happy Coach Weilsman, who put his hands up, “Don’t look at me!” 

Jean motioned to Eren before walking off and away to the dugout, claiming to grab something.

“Uh,” Eren started the impromptu speech, scratching the back of his head, “good game, right?” Teammates, students, and parents burst into victorious cheers, making Eren smile.

“This win was a team effort, and I’m so proud of us guys. We did uh, really good and stuff. Honestly, I’m just stalling because Jean is helping grab something from the clubhouse,” The crowd laughed and then turned towards the sound of footsteps running towards the crowd. Reiner, Connie, and Jean helped hold a huge, rolled up wad of paper and Eren began to talk again as murmurs of curiosity began to rise from the crowd.

“Honestly, I wasn’t gonna do this here, but I wanted everyone to witness it because he deserves to be shown off.” The entire crowd had gone silent with confusion as the three boys began to unroll the paper, revealing a large, decorated sign. It had floral edges and baseballs, along with drawn on whales and other marine animals. In the center, a large, _‘Prom? Full homo :)’_ was written out. His friends, who previously surrounded him, were now pushing the crowd to make a path to where Eren stood in front of the pitcher’s mound. Mikasa slowly pushed him forward and Armin walked towards Eren in astonishment as the brunette still talked.

“This boy has supported me through thick and thin and has been my best friend since we were six years old, he even played catch with me when we were younger even if he didn’t know how to,” the crowd laughed, keeping their eyes on the pair. Armin was sure his face was as red as a baboon’s ass as he finally made his way to the front of the crowd.

“But now, as he stands in front of me,” Eren came forward and took his hands, dragging him towards the sign, “I have had bad days, extremely stupid days, and he still puts up with me. He continues to stick with me at my best and worst, and now today, I officially want to ask you, Armin Arlert, to not only be my date to the junior prom, but also accompany me as my official boyfriend.” The crowd awe’d in unison, the freshmen girls disappointed that baseball superstar Eren Jaeger was gay but then beginning to pine over junior genius Armin Arlert as their Gay Best Friend™. Everyone grew silent as Eren motioned for Armin to answer, nerves wracking his brain.

Armin chuckled and kissed Eren quickly, looking him in the eyes, “Is it still full homo if we have socks on?” Eren threw his head back and laughed, “Maybe I can make the exception.”

Armin laughed, allowing Eren to pull him into his chest before exclaiming an “Of course!” and the crowd cheered for the two. 

Coach Weilsman finally made his way to the head of the crowd, addressing them.

“Sorry parents, I know you guys looked forward to the postgame chat, but I really couldn’t help it. Jaeger has been pining over this kid since he was a mere sophomore, I had to let him do this!” The parents laughed and Coach turned to Armin, “Anything to say for yourself, Arlert?”

“Uh, go Titans?” And the crowd cheered once again, Eren and Armin making their way to their friends to listen to Coach’s official speech as Jean, Connie, and Reiner wrapped up the sign, then tuned into the post-game. Armin couldn’t help but be distracted by the way his sweaty, dirt-covered _boyfriend_ continued to hug him from behind throughout the entire talk, though. 

Armin gripped onto Eren’s arms and Eren gripped him right back and they continued to be unseperated on the drive to the group's designated pizza place, Eren holding his hand on top of the center console as Armin drove.

“Hey, Armin?”

“Yeah?”

“I know we’ve only been officially dating for like, an hour, but I just wanted to tell you that I love you.”

Armin slammed on the breaks as he almost missed the red light, making both boys lurch forward. He looked over at Eren, who chuckled awkwardly and rubbed his thumb along Armin’s knuckles.

“I mean you don’t have to say it back or anything, I just realized that I’ve always loved you, whether it was platonically and now, romantically, and you just make me really happy and I know it took me a long time to realize everything about my identity and stuff but I’ve always-” Armin shot across the console, shutting Eren’s word vomit up with a harsh kiss. 

“Yeah, same,” he said as he pulled back, continuing to drive to the pizza place and keeping his eyes trained on the road, a small smile stuck on his face. He couldn’t bring himself to say it just yet, but Eren knew by Armin’s response that the feeling was mutual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alrighty, my loves, see you all in the epilogue :,) <3


	18. Epilogue: Eight Years Later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to everyone who has read up to this point, it really does mean the absolute world to me. this is my first ever fic on ao3 and all of the support ive gained in just the short month i wrote this fic is honestly insane. thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
> 
> reminder that im doing a final author's note that is being posted on sunday, march 7th that will talk about this fic, its origins, and my next fic. if yall have any q's you want me to answer, go ahead and comment it with a /Q in front of it and i'll answer it there :) thank you guys again so much, and now, onto the epilogue <3

“I do.”

A happy silence graced over the crowd, small sniffles heard from the two emotional mothers in the front row. The cliff that the ceremony resided on overlooked the beautiful, glistening ocean and Armin breathed deeply, sighing in content as the salty scent filled his nostrils. A gentle breeze blew and ruffled Armin’s hair but he didn’t move to fix it, he didn’t want to miss a moment.

The sunshine burned down amongst the guests, not in an uncomfortable sensation, but in more of a way that provided a comfortable and shared warmth among them. Whether it was in their hearts or just the blinding rays, the crowd couldn’t distinguish.

“I now pronounce you, bride and bride!” Historia had always been one for gentle kisses and Armin was fairly sure that was what she expected, but as soon as Reiner announced them, Ymir quickly wiped away her tears and gave Historia a dramatic dip, kissing her and making it  _ uncomfortably  _ audible. The crowd laughed as Historia got up, dazed and giving her newly-wed wife a peck. Armin clapped, happy for his two lifelong friends, and felt a hand slip around his waist.

“Y’know,” Eren said, breath tickling Armin’s ear, “that’s gonna be us one day.” Armin just gave him a beaming smile and a kiss before turning their attention back to the two brides who made their way down the aisle. Nowadays, Historia usually wore her hair up in a braided bun so it was uncharacteristic to see it long and flowing down her back. Ymir never quite strayed away from short hair, but it was short enough now that she no longer had to be tied into a ponytail. Historia ended up going to culinary school and opening her own bakery out in the bustling city of Trost, to which Ymir had no problem following her. The opposite now worked as a psychiatrist, which mildly shocked everyone when she announced her college major back in their senior year.

Fortunately, the ripe age of 26 was kind to them, especially when it came to their alcohol tolerance. All friends partied the night away at a local nightclub that had been rented out for the reception, and they all tipsily piled around Eren’s phone to contact those who couldn’t make it.

Levi’s angry scowl hadn’t changed as years went on, but it did soften when a tiny girl hopped on his back and interrupted his and Erwin’s congratulations speech. The two had taken off to Hizuru, which was quite the drive to make it down to Sina especially with two freshly adopted children.

“Daddy, who dat?” The red-haired girl questioned, removing her finger from her mouth to point at the screen.

“Those are my friends Ymir and Historia,” he coo’d at the tiny Ackerman-Smith, patting her head, “can you say Ymir and Historia?”

The tiny girl looked down, muttering a quick  _ ‘Meer and Hissora’ _ before running away. The group heard Erwin in the background, yelling for their daughter to get off Farlan, their older son. Levi looked back at the camera, eyes wandering to Ymir and Historia before gumbling, “The married life changes you,” to which everyone then laughed and said their goodbyes. 

Bertholdt then whipped out his own phone, calling his little brother.

“Ymir! Historia! Congratulations!” Udo and Zofia had become roommates when they coincidentally ended up going to the same college. Suffering through the first years of the mandatory gendered dorms, they both gathered enough money to buy an apartment off campus, where they currently were studying for final exams.

“Yeah, those are a bitch,” Falco nodded towards his friends, taking a swig of beer and keeping his arm tight around Gabi. Sasha eye’d her younger sister wearily before turning her attention back to the two on the screen. Armin quickly greeted his cousin, along with Annie who interrogated her little sister until Ymir pushed her out of the way.

“Lesbian power!!” Ymir yelled, fistbumping the screen. Zofia leaned over and fistbumped back, to which Udo just shook his head humorously. The call ended a few minutes later, a small booth in the corner being packed to the brim. 

Armin laid delicately on Eren’s shoulder, who had begun to wear his hair down the longer it grew. It was a pretty rare sight for the rest, considering they usually only saw Eren on the big screen now, along with Jean. Both had been picked up on different minor league teams fresh out of college, and had worked their way up the chain easily. It was unheard of, two complete rookies dominating the game. Armin remembered the fight that nearly broke out on the field the first time they played each other as Eren kept neighing everytime Jean took a practice swing. Or the way he said, “Giddy up!” as Jean approached the batter’s box. Whatever, old news. The bigger news was that recently, Eren got signed to the Los Angeles Dodgers as a catcher. Jean was still working out things, but he would either move out to Boston to play as a Red Sox or to New York to play as a Yankee. Regardless, he was happy to be able to be home for his friends’ wedding.

The blonde’s eyes graced the table as he thought about how far they had all come, who would’ve thought? He caught sight of the engagement band that peeked on Marco’s left hand, the one that was currently holding Jean’s. At this moment, Marco had decided to look over at Armin and they both shared smiles. Speaking of similarities and differences, Armin also noted the eyepatch that currently graced Marco’s left eye. For a while, he had become a firefighter. Frankly, no one was shocked because of the guy’s hero complex. One night gone bad on the job resulted in a burnt left side and a year’s worth of depression. It was odd, Armin remembered, seeing Marco so sad for the first time ever. Jean stuck by his side through and through though, which made Armin’s heart swell for them.

Reiner and Bertholdt left the city immediately for college, staying strong through a long distance relationship. They now lived in the next town over, Stohess, and Bertholdt coincidentally taught art at the elementary school the marine biology club used to volunteer at. As for Reiner, he ran his own gym program. The blonde thought back, vividly remembering when he saw the instagram post promoting the new building. Reiner came clean about struggling with Bipolar Disorder, of which he was diagnosed as a freshman in college. As an escape, he began to train hard at his local gym and built trust in his mentor, Dot Pixis, who inspired him to open his own gym. It was pretty dripped out too, if Armin could say anything. It was cheap for anyone to come and go, but due to fundraisers and such, it was a lavish building that provided quality services to the general public.

Annie and Mikasa were cuddled up next to each other, sleeping soundly in the booth. Their relationship continued to flourish, faster than anyone in the groups. In fact, they decided to get married immediately after graduation. Much to Annie’s parents dismay, but Mikasa and Eren’s parents did something similar and they were going on nearly 30 years strong, so they continued to back both girls and treated Annie just like she was a Jaeger (which she now was, legally). Annie followed the path to become a chemistry professor. Armin didn’t know why she would willingly put herself through that kind of pain, but shrugged off that thought as soon as it came. Mikasa worked as a child’s therapist, specifically for those dealing with PTSD and abduction victims. The two stone cold girls always knew how to make each other melt, though, and Armin always figured that was the coolest aspect of their relationship.

Then, Armin’s eyes trailed to Hanji and Onyankopon, who had begun living with Hanji two years prior. His heart faltered a bit before he chippered up, attempting to think about the good old days. Unfortunately, Hanji and Moblit got caught up in a bank robbery when they were going to take out a loan to spend for their wedding. They had been going nearly six years strong and they both had been planning the perfect wedding, including where Levi dressed in a maid costume and gave Hanji a lap dance. That dream never saw reality, though, as Moblit was the second hostage who was killed as a threat to the police outside. His lip quivered slightly before straightening up and gripping Eren’s hand a little tighter. 

Oh, did he miss Moblit, and Eren, too. Eren vividly remembered the day that he and Armin got the call, notifying that their friend and Eren’s previous guardian angel had passed. Even to this day, despite not being religious, Eren felt as if that statement was still true. As Armin looked at Hanji joking around with the group, he noticed that that maniac-sparkle that always glistened in Hanji’s eyes stayed dull, but Onyankopon was a great person who helped console Hanji. The two were not in a relationship, but instead more of like a caretaker and best friend. Even if Armin didn’t know the man too well back in highschool, he was happy to have him here now.

Connie and Sasha were still fucking around doing god-knows-what. They got drunkenly married in Vegas on a whim, which made Sasha slightly disappointed since she wanted a wedding for an excuse for a huge feast, but the two thought the story was fitting to the chaos of their relationship and went along with it. Connie promised his wife that on their five-year anniversary, they would have a large ceremony to renew their vows and he would gift her with the biggest buffet imaginable. Connie got surprisingly tall as well, now growing out his previous shaved head. Still short enough to look like a cueball, Armin noted though.

Nanaba and Miche were still just perfect, Armin deducted. Similar to how Reiner and Bertholdt were Eren’s example relationship, Nanaba and Miche continued to be Armin’s. Unsurprisingly, they took the suburban route and stayed in Sina. Miche currently worked as the chief-of-police while Nanaba wrote for the Sina Daily paper, which was cool in itself, and she was a whopping six months pregnant with a baby girl.

By time his tipsy reflections were all done and over with, Eren was patting his leg to go home. They said their goodbyes, giving everyone hugs and cheek kisses before making their way to the Uber that Eren called for them. As they walked in the door, Armin felt Eren come up behind him and begin to take off his uncomfortable suit jacket for him.

“Did you have fun, baby?” Eren sighed, kissing along Armin’s neck who just nodded with content. Eren knew that Armin loved his neck kisses.

“I’m glad, now let’s go to bed.” The brunette led their way to their shared bedroom and they both stripped to their boxers, slipping under the sheets and into each other’s embrace.

“Eren?”

“Yeah?”

“Call me what you used to call me,” Armin was feeling quite nostalgic, he always got like this at weddings. It was weird to see your childhood best friends growing up and starting a life together.

“What’s up, Ar?” The brunette questioned, snuggling into his boyfriend. Armin played with the key that laid around Eren’s neck, a gift from Armin for their one-year anniversary back when they were seniors.

_ ‘It’s the key to my heart,’ Armin explained, clipping it around Eren’s neck. ‘As long as you have it with you, I will always be yours.’ _

He never could recall a time Eren took it off, even in the shower.

“I love you.”

Eren chuckled, kissing along Armin’s face, “I love you, too, but don’t get all sappy on me, Arlert.”

“Don’t you mean Jaeger?” Eren laughed again.

“One day, and I’m glad we’re taking my last name,” the brunette yawned, rubbing circles on Armin’s back.

As for Armin? He was the head investigator of the Sina Police Department, soon to be transferred out to Los Angeles once the season for Eren started up. His manipulative, smart brain got him far easily when it came to interrogations, not to mention how fast he could solve cases and pick up clues in mere seconds of just thinking about it. He passed his training with flying colors, racing and taking spot as the top dog the second the opportunity invented itself. He remembered how proud his parents were of him and how his Papa shed a few tears when he had told them nearly seven months ago that he was being promoted. He sighed constantly, reflecting at his own life before reaching up and nudging at Eren.

“I’m horny.”

“Can’t you wait until the morning, Ar? I mean, not that I don’t want to, but literally my body feels like unkneaded bread dough.”

“What if I topped?”

“Armin Arlert.”

“Armin  _ Jaeger. _ ”

“Arlert-Jaeger?” Eren questioned randomly, making Armin nod.

“Oh yeah, that has a good ring,” the blonde replied, genuinely pondering it.

“I know, right?  _ Fucking hell _ , tomorrow morning! Put that hand back where it belongs.”

The blonde sexual deviant huffed, putting his hand back against his chest and cuddling into Eren.

“You know, we aren’t going to have much time to do that when we have kids.”

“We don’t have kids right now, now shut the fuck up before I use to gag for non-bedroom reasons.”

“Oh yeah, keep talking dirty to me, Er.”

“...I hate you.”

-

Many years later, Eren would discover that Armin was very right on the fact that they would no longer have time to themselves. This was proven a fact as he hastily packed two lunches, hearing footsteps come downstairs.

“Hey Dad,” Niccolo called, grabbing his lunch.

“Hey kiddo, good luck on that math test today! Wait, for your little brother- you still need to drive him to school!” He called after his sixteen year old. He sighed, grumbling about teenagers and hearing a smaller pair of footsteps bounding down the stairs. At least the kids weren’t biologically his, because Eren knew that he simply wouldn’t be able to handle a kid that had the same capacity of anger issues as him.

“Hey Zeke, don’t forget, baseball practice after school!” Eren called to his middle schooler, who just nodded without taking his headphones out. Both teens were out of the house within minutes, and Eren snuck upstairs to the master bedroom where his husband laid defeated on the bed.

He turned him over, attacking Armin with kisses. Eren was off from season temporarily due to a concussion he got a few months prior. A runner from the Pedros decided it would be nice to sock Eren in the face while sliding home, which led to Eren giving feeble attempts to fight to dick pack before he fainted. Today, Armin took a vacation day just because work had been stressing him out. He figured it would be okay, though. There was nothing too urgent happening at the station anyways, so they could go a single day without him since his attendance record was previously nearly squeaky clean.

“Our sons are little assholes, you know that?” Eren mumbled, sliding down Armin’s pajama pants.

“Yeah, guess who raised them for the past two years they've been with us,” Armin directed Eren’s face towards the hallway that connected their ensuite, forcing him to look in the mirror that was just barely visible.

“Sure it wasn’t you? That was a pretty dick move.”

“Extremely sure, I’ve never been more sure in my life,” Armin’s head threw back as Eren took him in his mouth, moaning gingerly. God, they should not have adopted kids so young. Not that Eren and Armin didn’t love their sons with their entire heart and more, but at 30, Armin and Eren had still kept in good shape which boded well with the fact that they were still as hormonal as pubescent teenagers. Having the kids around constantly didn’t exactly bode well for their inconvenient sex drive and Eren distinctly remembered the tears that both men shed when they had to box up their red room in order to make space for a second child. But, unfortunately, both men couldn’t complain as they would both do it all over again in a heartbeat.

After approximately 7 rounds, both men made their way downstairs and lounged around, cleaning up the house and sipping leisurely on coffee until the rest of their family came home from school for the day. They had a big weekend ahead of them as they were driving out to Levi and Erwin’s house in the outskirts, a mansion, really. Levi became a doctor as expected, which not only allowed him to buy a big, beautiful house for his Uncle Kenny but also a large mansion on the outskirts of town where they and their highschool friends often met up since there was somehow enough room to accomodate for all the families and their kids. 

Eren and Armin cuddled, talking and planning out their upcoming weekend as the door burst open with a scared looking Niccolo. Zeke walked to the kitchen but Niccolo immediately slammed the door, taking a seat on the chair adjacent to the couch.

“Jesus Christ, Nicky. What the fuck crawled up your ass and died?” Eren groaned, earning a smack to the back of the head by Armin who growled,  _ ‘Do not talk to our son like you talk to Jean!’ _ .

“Uh, Dad, Dad, can you tell me about how you guys started dating?” Armin directed his gaze nervously to Eren before starting.

“Uhm, your father and I were...childhood friends since we were about six. He protected me from bullies and asked me to marry him because I was a girl.” The blonde giggled, recalling the memory. At this point, Zeke had entered the living room and plopped down curiously to listen, telling Eren that baseball practice got cancelled last minute due to problems with the field.

Niccolo nodded to keep going and Armin leaned back into his husband, both retelling the story of Eren’s denial, Armin’s denial, then their pure stupidity in general. They had both of their sons laughing, tears dripping from both their eyes when they told them the story about how they got drunk as teenagers. Armin pointed to the fireplace below to TV at picture frames, describing the one that was taken by Carla on prom night, then moving to the one that had their entire friend group in one frame at graduation for Levi, Erwin, Hanji, Miche, Nanaba, and Moblit. They talked and talked about their relationship, reliving old memories and softening at them.

“So you guys are like, really in love, huh?” Niccolo asked, enticed.

Eren scoffed, “Hell no! That’s fuckin’ gay,” another slap from Armin but lighter as they both chuckled at the inside joke. “Wooo! Women to the max. I’m Eren Jaeger and I  _ looove  _ women!” The blonde burst into hysterics, slapping at his husband’s chest. Understanding the joke now that they both had learned about their parents’ past, their two teenage sons began laughing too until it halted.

“Why do you ask, Nicky? Is everything okay at school?” Armin asked, sitting straight up and using his ‘Dad Voice’.

“Well, I have this chemistry project and…”

Armin and Eren both looked at each other before rolling their eyes. Not this shit again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can we appreciate how i said i would most likely start & finish the epilogue tomorrow but then i ended up posting it like,, seven hours after the last chapter LMFAOOO im fr on xgames mode or smth i swear ldafjhalwfh


	19. Author's Ending Note

Hello everyone! This is AO3 user coffeedependent, and this is the final author’s note to conclude ‘And Eren LOVED Women’. 

God, how do y’all take me seriously with a title like that? Seriously, what the fuck was I thinking. 

**_ALSO QUICK IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ALERT!! I have made an instagram for updates and stuff. If you guys like it I’ll post often about when updates are and whatever, it’s kinda experimental for now but I’d love to interact with yall outside of AO3!_ **

**_So follow me on ig @coffeedependentao3 :D_ **

Anyways hi, my name is Syd, but I prefer to go by Rosie online. I started this fic after my finals week in January. Attack on Titan became my comfort show after some pretty heavy family stuff happened, and I looked towards alternate universes in fanfiction to cheer me up and motivate me since school was easily going down hill and I was quickly losing motivation for life in general. Unfortunately, all I could find was Levi x Eren fics and not many good Armin x Eren fics that really had what I was looking for so tada! I just wrote it out. A frequently asked question of mine was: “Op, how do you write so quick?”

Honestly, writing this fic and imaging the perfect alternate universe gave me so much motivation. I didn’t expect this fic to even be finished, or even get past chapter 3 before I gave up on it. But then many people began to give me feedback and told me that they loved my writing and they looked forward to what I was bringing to the table. When I kept telling you guys that this honestly meant the world to me, it did. I mean, these random strangers on the internet that were complimenting my cringy gay fanfiction are now my reason to work hard in school. I get my homework done in record time, keep my grades up, because that means more free time to write. I wrote during my classes, in between passing periods, any opportunity I got because genuinely it was just so fun and I couldn’t wait to see what you guys would think about it.

Some more answers regarding the “how did I write so fast”: 

  * None of this fic was pre-written, I wrote every chapter on a whim
  * No, this fic didn’t have a pre-written plot. I wasn’t kidding when I said this fic literally wrote itself, I would just start typing and the plot would develop itself, I rarely deleted things
    * (the only things I deleted were the drafts of my first chapt. & two smut scenes that I deemed to early for a slowburn, so just know you guys almost got smut scenes and eremin content in chapter 4 but then I decided to make you all suffer)
    * (I had to go check the fic for that and realized I got two new comments on chapter 17, yes I’m writing the first half of this before I even started the epilogue, so to user @lettucesyrup and the anon user who commented on chapter 17 on March 2nd at 9:26 PST, you guys just made my heart burst. Thank you very much!! Although, I’ll probably reply soon so you’ve already heard that before :3)



Yeah, so that’s that on that. I don’t really know what else to say. Oh! There is a new fic in the works, most likely Eremin because it’s just what the world needs, you know? How would you guys feel about mafia boss!Armin? Honestly, I just thought of that and typed it down as a joke but I’ve now decided that the fic will be mafia boss!Armin x (something)Eren, not really sure for Eren yet but  _ damn _ does the world deserve mafia boss!Armin.

...do you guys see what I mean when I say that my fics just write themselves. Literally, the paragraph above is all of my immediate thoughts written down and unchanged. Seriously, it just works like that. 

Anyways, I’m gonna draft this and pick it back up Saturday night to finish it LOLZ. I’m probably gonna put a dedication because I had a surprising amount of dedicated readers to the point where I have their users memorized. Seriously, y’all mean the world to me and many more who I will list once future-me looks through the comments. Wanna know a funny story? I made an ao3 account and directly started writing, but I’ve always been just anon and saved the tabs so I made a secret account (that you will all never find) so I could experiment with replying to comments and shit because I was scared to press the wrong buttons :c HOW EMBARRASSING. Whatever, okay future Rosie, you can take over now because this is getting wayyy too long for an author’s note.

-

Hi it’s me. It’s currently 9:47pm lol. This is def wayyy too long for an author’s note but I don’t really care I’m just EDGY LIKE THAT!!! Also, PSA, the fic about Armin being a mafia boss is underway and I’ll upload the first 2 chapters I already have complete so check out Unfinished Business by going to my page or whatever it’s called :p okay, onto the Q&A! 

So, there weren’t many questions which means I did my job and there weren’t too many open ends in my fic which was good because I literally didn’t edit/proofread any of them,,, oopsies <3

Question from @kaydensquareass: What was your least/favorite part to write in this book?

My least favorite part was definitely the first chapter. I kept second guessing myself and how I wanted the story to start but it eventually got finished after a few hours of rewriting. My favorite part was definitely any time I got to write any joke. Literally, I’d sit here laughing at my own jokes. It’s embarrassing :p

Question from @pisugobbleru: are u planning to write more ships in the future??? or r u gonna stick with eremin and try to experiment with the dynamics/ possible aus?? im really curious!!

For now I’ll probably stick with Eremin, they are both my comfort characters so I like to prioritize making them happy because it makes me happy if that makes sense :p also, I have a lot of headcanons that really bring their entire character together which I don’t really have for the other characters. I’m gonna experiment with more AUs and try to up my writing before branching out completely to another ship, BUT there will always be sideships because they just deserve that kinda happiness. If I do branch out to another ship, it’ll probably be Eruri or JeanMarco :D

Okay that’s it for the Q&A, now onto the quick lil dedication. Honestly, y’all gave me so many comments complimenting me and whatnot I read them back in my free time if I’m feeling down. It makes me so happy to know my writing was a bright point in your day or whatnot, I loved making you all smile! I had a lot of very active commenters, of which I still have to reply to, so here’s a quick dedication to those people! Thank you so much for your kind words, they always made my day <3

@Skye_Yeager

@quigglywiggly

@Razor_the_ninja

@jiminschancla

@plaggism

@butterfly_clips

@kaydensquareass

@actuallynamjoon

@rxdiant_roses

@hoeliwia

@GraceFalls

@HOes_mad

Thank you guys all for reading And Eren LOVED Women, I can’t wait to continue to write for all of you. Until the next fic! <3

-Rosie


End file.
